Daegyeonsa, Biseulsan

Quick facts

Address

177 Iryeonseonsa-gil, Dalseong-gun, Daegu

About this place

Daegyeonsa stands on Biseulsan in Yuga-eup, Dalseong-gun, Daegu. An account is handed down that the name was given because this place matched a temple site that had been seen in a great country. It is known as a temple where Iryeon served as first abbot; Iryeon began writing the Samguk Yusa from about 1277, over four years at Unmunsa in Cheongdo. Yi Jae-in restored the temple in 1900 to mark the investiture of Crown Prince Yeongchin, but it began to decay from 1908 and was a ruin again by 1917. Until recently only a three-storey stone pagoda, stone revetments, a well and a rock-carved Buddha remained on the site. On 1 March 2014 Donghwasa of Palgongsan rebuilt the main hall, the meditation hall, the residential quarters and the mountain-god hall, and the ruined site became a working temple again.

Origin and history

An account is handed down that the name was given because this place matched a temple site that had been seen in a great country.

It is known as a temple where Iryeon served as first abbot. Iryeon began writing the Samguk Yusa from about 1277, over four years at Unmunsa in Cheongdo.

Yi Jae-in restored the temple in 1900 to mark the investiture of Crown Prince Yeongchin, but it began to decay from 1908 and was a ruin again by 1917.

Until recently only a three-storey stone pagoda, stone revetments, a well and a rock-carved Buddha remained on the site. On 1 March 2014 Donghwasa of Palgongsan rebuilt the main hall, the meditation hall, the residential quarters and the mountain-god hall, and the ruined site became a working temple again.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  A ruined site made a temple again in 2014

  After the ruin of 1917 only a three-storey pagoda, revetments, a well and a rock-carved Buddha remained, until Donghwasa rebuilt the halls on 1 March 2014.

  documented history

• Origin

  A site recognised

  The name is said to have been given because this place matched a temple site seen in a great country.

  folk tradition

• What people do here

  Iryeon as first abbot

  Iryeon is known as this temple’s first abbot; he began the Samguk Yusa from about 1277 at Unmunsa in Cheongdo.

  documented history

This ground was lost once and came back. Restored in 1900, decaying from 1908, a ruin by 1917, and after that only a three-storey pagoda, stone revetments, a well and a rock-carved Buddha. It became a temple again on 1 March 2014.

This site holds many temples rebuilt after fire. But here nothing burned; people left, the ground stood empty for most of a century, and then it came back. That is also why what remained is set down as a list — pagoda, revetments, well, carved Buddha.

The name too is about recognition. It was called Daegyeonsa, the account says, because this place matched a temple site that had been seen in a great country: a site seen elsewhere and known again here.

Iryeon is recorded as this temple’s first abbot. But the Samguk Yusa was begun from about 1277 at Unmunsa in Cheongdo, so the book was not written on this ground.

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. 비슬산 대견사(琵瑟山 大見寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 (accessed 2026-08-16)