Bultapsa

Quick facts

Address

41 Wondang-ro 16-gil, Jeju-si, Jeju

About this place

Bultapsa stands in Samyang 1-dong, Jeju City, on the former site of Wondangsa. Wondangsa was abolished in the middle of the Joseon period, and since the 1950s Bultapsa, newly built on the temple site, has stood in its place. The site is where a popular account is handed down that Empress Gi — second empress of Emperor Shun of Yuan, and daughter of the Goryeo man Gi Ja-o — built Wondangsa in order to obtain a prince, sent an envoy to make offerings there, and obtained a son. It is also said that the pagoda was raised together with the temple at the foot of Wondangbong at her entreaty. The five-storey stone pagoda of Bultapsa is a Goryeo work 3.85 metres high, built of basalt. Its heavy look and sparing modelling suggest it was made in the later Goryeo, when regional character was strong. It is designated a Treasure.

Origin and history

The Wondangsa site is where a popular account is handed down that Empress Gi — second empress of Emperor Shun of Yuan, and daughter of the Goryeo man Gi Ja-o — built Wondangsa in order to obtain a prince, sent an envoy to make offerings there, and obtained a son. It is also said that at her entreaty the pagoda was raised together with the temple at the foot of Wondangbong.

Wondangsa was abolished in the middle of the Joseon period. Since the 1950s, Bultapsa, newly built on the temple site, has stood in its place.

The five-storey stone pagoda of Bultapsa is a Goryeo pagoda 3.85 metres high, built of basalt. Its heavy appearance and sparing modelling suggest it was made in the later Goryeo, when regional character was strong. It is designated a Treasure.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotFertility & Children

  In order to obtain a prince

  A popular account holds that Empress Gi built Wondangsa to obtain a prince, sent an envoy to make offerings, and obtained a son.

  folk tradition

• Origin

  A five-storey pagoda in basalt

  The Goryeo pagoda stands 3.85 metres high and was built of basalt, the island’s own stone.

  documented history

• What people do here

  The temple changed; the pagoda stayed

  Wondangsa was abolished in the mid-Joseon, and Bultapsa was newly built on the site after the 1950s.

  documented history

At this temple’s beginning stands someone who never came. Empress Gi, wanting a prince, is said to have built a temple on Jeju and sent an envoy to make the offerings in her place. She did not come to pray; she sent someone to pray. Of the child-praying places on this site, this is the only one where the person who asked never stood on the ground.

The record calls it a popular account, and that includes the ending in which she obtained a son. What this site’s fertility tag rests on is that account, and the grade of the evidence is no higher.

The pagoda is basalt. A Goryeo five-storey pagoda 3.85 metres high stands in the island’s own stone, and the record reads its heavy, sparingly modelled shape as later-Goryeo work of strong regional character. The material itself says where the pagoda belongs.

What lasted and what did not are also separate. Wondangsa was abolished in the mid-Joseon, and a new temple took the ground after the 1950s. The thing that has held the site is not the temple but the pagoda.

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. 보물 제주 불탑사 오층석탑(濟州 佛塔寺 五層石塔) — 국가유산청 국가유산포털 (accessed 2026-08-16)