Bomunsa

Quick facts

Address

Samsan-myeon, Ganghwa-gun, Incheon

Spiritual entities

Avalokiteśvara (Kannon · Gwaneum, 観音菩薩)

About this place

Bomunsa stands on Nakgasan on Seokmodo, in Ganghwa, Incheon. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture records it as one of the three great Avalokiteśvara sites in Korea. Its beginning is told as a fisherman’s story: in 635 a net brought up twenty-two stones shaped like figures, and the chamber housing them is still there. A seated Buddha carved into the cliff dates from 1928.

Origin and history

The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture tells the beginning this way. In the fourth month of 635, a fisherman living in Samsan-myeon cast his net into the sea and brought up twenty-two stones resembling human figures. He threw them back; an old monk appeared in his dream and rebuked him; the next day he retrieved all twenty-two and enshrined them on Nakgasan.

Arhat figures are enshrined in the stone chamber. Three arched openings stand at its mouth, and inside are a semicircular dais and pillars, with stone figures set in twenty-one niches between them. The seated Buddha on the cliff was carved in 1928 by Yi Hwa-eung, a monk of Pyohunsa on Geumgangsan, together with the abbot Bae Seon-ju; it is 9.2 metres high and 3.3 metres wide.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotWish Fulfillment

  One of three great Gwaneum sites

  Counted alongside Boriam in Namhae and Hongryeonam at Naksansa.

  documented history

• Origin

  Twenty-two stones in a net

  A fisherman’s net brought them up in 635; rebuked by an old monk in a dream, he retrieved them and enshrined them on Nakgasan.

  folk tradition

• Power spot

  The stone chamber and the cliff Buddha

  Stone figures sit in twenty-one niches inside the chamber; the seated Buddha carved into the cliff in 1928 is 9.2 metres high.

  documented history

What this temple is known for is settled by the state record in a single sentence: the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture calls Bomunsa one of the three great Avalokiteśvara sites of Korea. The other two are Boriam on Geumsan in Namhae and Hongryeonam at Naksansa, and all three are on this site.

The saying that follows all three is that one wish offered wholeheartedly will be heard — long transmitted, and not a promise the temple makes. That this is a place of prayer to Avalokiteśvara, though, is not transmitted: it is written down.

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. 낙가산 보문사(洛迦山 普門寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 — Academy of Korean Studies (accessed 2026-08-12)
2. 보문사 석실(普門寺 石室) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 — Academy of Korean Studies (accessed 2026-08-12)
3. Bomunsa (Q55730359) — coordinate location — Wikidata (accessed 2026-08-12)