Daegwallyeong Seonghwangsa and Sansingak

Quick facts

Address

527-35 Daegwallyeong-maru-gil, Daegwallyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon

Spiritual entities

Sansin (山神), the mountain god

About this place

The Seonghwangsa and Sansingak stand in Daegwallyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang, Gangwon. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes the mountain-god shrine as a place where rites are offered for good harvests and good catches, and records that its mountain god presides over farming, illness, drought and journeys. As to who that god is, Heo Gyun’s Seongso Bubugo names Kim Yu-sin, and residents generally believe the same. The shrine was designated a Gangwon provincial monument on 2 June 1984, together with the nearby Guksa Seonghwangsa.

Origin and history

The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes the Daegwallyeong Sansindang as a mountain-god shrine in Daegwallyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang, where rites are offered praying for good harvests and good catches.

On the deity enshrined, the collected writings of Heo Gyun — the Seongso Bubugo, of Gwanghaegun’s reign — record him as Kim Yu-sin, and residents generally believe so. A seventeenth-century record and present belief point at the same name.

On 2 June 1984 it was designated a Gangwon provincial monument together with the nearby Daegwallyeong Guksa Seonghwangsa. The rite is held on the fifteenth day of the fourth lunar month.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotHealth & HealingProtection & Safety

  Farming, illness, drought, the road

  The four things the encyclopedia records this mountain god as presiding over.

  documented history

• Origin

  The name in the Seongso Bubugo

  Heo Gyun’s collected writings record the mountain god as Kim Yu-sin, and residents generally believe the same.

  documented history

• What people do here

  The rite on the fifteenth

  Held on the fifteenth day of the fourth lunar month each year.

  local custom

What this mountain god is responsible for, the encyclopedia sets out in a single line: he presides over human welfare in farming, illness, drought and journeys. Illness is on that list, and so is the road. Those two words are the whole basis for the health and protection tags on this page.

The geography explains the list. Gangneung sits on a plain between the Taebaek range and the East Sea, so rites prayed for good harvests and, for the fishing villages, good catches. And Daegwallyeong is the pass over that range. A mountain god at the top of a pass taking charge of the road is not a surprising arrangement.

Related guides

• Musok and gut — Korea’s living folk religionWho the mudang are and what a gut is. And what to do if you walk in on one.

Sources

1. 대관령 산신당(大關嶺 山神堂) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 — Academy of Korean Studies (accessed 2026-08-12)
2. 아산 이충무공 유허 — 국가유산포털 — Korea Heritage Service (accessed 2026-08-12)