Eunhaesa, Palgongsan

Quick facts

Address

300 Eunhaesa-ro, Cheongtong-myeon, Yeongcheon-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do

About this place

Eunhaesa stands on Palgongsan in Cheongtong-myeon, Yeongcheon-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and is the head temple of the tenth district of the Jogye Order. The national master Hyecheol founded it at Haeanpyeong in 809. In 1545 Cheongyo moved the main hall to its present site and built the temple anew; a hall and a stele were raised at that time, the placenta shrine of King Injong was sealed, and it was called Eunhaesa. The signboards of the main hall and of the Bohwaru are handed down as the writing of Chusa. The Yeongsanjeon of Geojoam, one of its attached hermitages, was designated a National Treasure in 1962.

Origin and history

The national master Hyecheol founded Eunhaesa at Haeanpyeong in 809.

In 1545 Cheongyo moved the main hall to its present site and built the temple anew. A hall and a stele were raised at that time, the placenta shrine of King Injong was sealed, and it was called Eunhaesa.

The signboards of the main hall and of the Bohwaru are handed down as the writing of Chusa.

The Yeongsanjeon of Geojoam, one of its attached hermitages, was designated a National Treasure in 1962.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  A name given on sealing a placenta shrine

  In 1545 Cheongyo moved the main hall to its present site and rebuilt it; a hall and a stele were raised, King Injong’s placenta shrine was sealed, and it was called Eunhaesa.

  documented history

• Origin

  Founded by the master Hyecheol

  The national master Hyecheol founded the temple at Haeanpyeong in 809.

  documented history

• What people do here

  Signboards by Chusa

  The signboards of the main hall and of the Bohwaru are handed down as the writing of Chusa.

  folk tradition

This temple’s name was fixed in the year it moved. In 1545 Cheongyo shifted the main hall to the present site and rebuilt it, and in doing so raised a hall and a stele, sealed the placenta shrine of King Injong, and called the place Eunhaesa. Name, site and duty were all settled in one year.

A placenta shrine is where a royal afterbirth was buried. Where the temples of Gyeonggi were rebuilt to guard tombs, what this temple took charge of was not a grave but a marker set at the other end of a life.

Handwriting survives here too. The signboards of the main hall and the Bohwaru are handed down as Chusa’s. Famous hands turn up often in Gyeongsang’s temples: Choe Chi-won wrote the stele of the Seon master Jingam at Ssanggyesa in Hadong, and Gounsa in Uiseong went so far as to rewrite the characters of its name after his style name.

The Yeongsanjeon of the attached hermitage Geojoam was designated a National Treasure in 1962 — a designation attached to the hermitage rather than to the temple itself.

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. 팔공산 은해사(八公山 銀海寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 (accessed 2026-08-16)