Daewonsa, Jirisan

Quick facts

Address

455 Daewonsa-gil, Samjang-myeon, Sancheong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do

About this place

Daewonsa stands on Jirisan in Samjang-myeon, Sancheong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do. It is handed down that Yeongi founded it in 548 under the name Pyeongwonsa, but there is no historical reliability to this. In 1890 Gubong rebuilt the worn buildings, put up a patriarchs’ portrait hall to the west and an abbot’s room and lecture hall to the east, and changed the name to Daewonsa. The meditation hall of this temple is counted, along with Seongnamsa and Gyeonseongam among others, as one of the country’s leading places of Seon practice for women in the monastic life. Its multi-storey stone pagoda was made in 1784; because the stone holds a great deal of iron, red water seeps out of it and gives a strong impression, though the carving itself is fairly plain.

Origin and history

It is handed down that Yeongi founded the temple in 548 under the name Pyeongwonsa, but there is no historical reliability to this.

In 1890 Gubong rebuilt the worn buildings, putting up a patriarchs’ portrait hall to the west and an abbot’s room and lecture hall to the east, and changed the name to Daewonsa.

The meditation hall of this temple is counted, along with Seongnamsa and Gyeonseongam among others, as one of the country’s leading places of Seon practice for women in the monastic life.

The multi-storey stone pagoda was made in 1784. Because the stone holds a great deal of iron, red water seeps out of it and gives a strong impression, though the carving itself is fairly plain.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spot

  A leading Seon hall for nuns

  The meditation hall of this temple is counted, along with Seongnamsa and Gyeonseongam among others, as one of the country’s leading places of Seon practice for women in the monastic life.

  documented history

• Origin

  A pagoda that seeps red

  The pagoda made in 1784 is of stone holding much iron, so red water seeps out and gives a strong impression, though the carving itself is fairly plain.

  documented history

• What people do here

  From Pyeongwonsa to Daewonsa

  In 1890 Gubong rebuilt the worn buildings and added a portrait hall, abbot’s room and lecture hall, changing the name to Daewonsa.

  documented history

What this temple does now is sit. Its meditation hall is counted, with Seongnamsa and Gyeonseongam, among the country’s leading places of Seon practice for women in the monastic life. Unmunsa in Cheongdo, in the same province, has held the teaching side since 1958 as a specialist seminary for nuns — so the place where they study and the place where they sit both stand in Gyeongsang.

Colour comes out of the pagoda. The multi-storey pagoda raised in 1784 is cut from stone rich in iron, so red water seeps from it; the record calls the impression strong and, in the same breath, calls the carving itself fairly plain.

On the founding, the record steps back from its own story. Yeongi is said to have built it in 548 as Pyeongwonsa, but it is written that there is no historical reliability to this. The present name is much later: it became Daewonsa when Gubong rebuilt the place in 1890.

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. 지리산 대원사(智異山 大源寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 (accessed 2026-08-16)