Beomeosa, Geumjeongsan

Quick facts

Address

250 Beomeosa-ro, Geumjeong-gu, Busan

About this place

Beomeosa stands on Geumjeongsan in Geumjeong-gu, Busan, and is the head temple of the fourteenth district of the Jogye Order. The temple is said to have been founded in the reign of King Heungdeok of Silla. It is handed down that a single golden fish came down from the sky riding five-coloured clouds and played there, and for this the mountain was named Geumjeongsan and the temple, once built, was called Beomeosa. In the Life of the Reverend Beopjang written by Choe Chi-won it is listed as one of the ten Hwaeom temples of this country. In the Joseon period it burned down in the Japanese invasions of the 1590s. Afterwards Beomeosa produced many eminent monks and widened its grounds, and in the 1900s, under the name of the great head temple of Seon, it carried on a movement to raise the spirit of Seon practice and became a footing for modern Buddhism.

Origin and history

The temple is said to have been founded in the reign of King Heungdeok of Silla.

It is handed down that a single golden fish came down from the sky riding five-coloured clouds and played there, and for this the mountain was named Geumjeongsan and the temple, once built, was called Beomeosa.

In the Life of the Reverend Beopjang written by Choe Chi-won it is listed as one of the ten Hwaeom temples of this country.

In the Joseon period it burned down in the Japanese invasions of the 1590s. Afterwards Beomeosa produced many eminent monks and widened its grounds, and in the 1900s, under the name of the great head temple of Seon, it carried on a movement to raise the spirit of Seon practice and became a footing for modern Buddhism.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  A fish on five-coloured clouds

  A single golden fish came down from the sky riding five-coloured clouds and played there, and for this the mountain was named Geumjeongsan and the temple Beomeosa.

  folk tradition

• Power spot

  One of the ten Hwaeom temples

  In the Life of the Reverend Beopjang written by Choe Chi-won it is listed as one of the ten Hwaeom temples of this country.

  documented history

• What people do here

  The great head temple of Seon

  In the 1900s, under that name, it carried on a movement to raise the spirit of Seon practice and became a footing for modern Buddhism.

  documented history

One story produced two names. A golden fish came down out of the sky on five-coloured clouds and played there, and so the mountain became Geumjeongsan and the temple Beomeosa. The fish character at the end of the temple’s name is that fish.

The line this temple belongs to runs back to Buseoksa in Yeongju. Choe Chi-won’s Life of the Reverend Beopjang counts it among the ten Hwaeom temples of this country, and that list of ten also holds Buseoksa on Taebaeksan and Haeinsa on Gayasan. Buseoksa is where the Hwaeom school formally opened in this land.

The temple was once wholly gone. It burned down in the Japanese invasions of the 1590s, and what stands now was raised after that.

There is a recent stretch of the record as well. In the 1900s, under the name of the great head temple of Seon, it carried on a movement to raise the spirit of Seon practice and became a footing for modern Buddhism.

Related guides

• How to visit a Korean templeHands together and hands folded, how the bows work, and what to do at the threshold of a hall. Starting with what is different from visiting a Japanese shrine.
• The small hall behind the main one — sansingak and samseonggakUphill from the main hall of a Korean temple stands a smaller one, and inside it an old man with a tiger. This is where the indigenous religion sits, inside the Buddhist institution.
• Templestay — a night at a templeA programme that puts you inside a temple’s own timetable for a day or two. What you do, which type to book, and what to be ready for.
• Prayer sites and the one wishThe three great Gwaneum sites, the five relic halls, and the crowds before the entrance exam. Where the saying about one wish comes from, and where the record stops.

Sources

1. 금정산 범어사(金井山 梵魚寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 (accessed 2026-08-16)