Hoeamsa Temple Site, Cheonbosan

Quick facts

Address

281 Hoeamsa-gil, Yangju-si, Gyeonggi-do

About this place

The Hoeamsa temple site lies on Cheonbosan in Yangju, Gyeonggi-do. In 1328 Jigong, who had come from India through Yuan China into Goryeo, rebuilt it as a great temple of two hundred and sixty-six kan modelled on Nalanda in India, and in 1378 Naong rebuilt it again. From the late Goryeo into the mid-Joseon period Hoeamsa was the largest temple in the country, keeping close relations with the royal house and leading the Buddhist thought and culture of its day. It was a temple under royal protection in the early Joseon, and is known as the place where Yi Seong-gye, King Taejo, stayed and practised in his old age. In the decline of Buddhism after Queen Munjeong, Hoeamsa is taken to have fallen away and been gradually abandoned. On the ridge north of the temple ground stand the stupas of Jigong and Naong together with the memorial stupa of the master Muhak. The site is designated a Historic Site, and the Muhak stupa a Treasure.

Origin and history

In 1328 Jigong, who had come from India through Yuan China into Goryeo, rebuilt the temple as a great establishment of two hundred and sixty-six kan modelled on Nalanda in India, and in 1378 Naong rebuilt it again.

From the late Goryeo into the mid-Joseon period Hoeamsa was the largest temple in the country, keeping close relations with the royal house and leading the Buddhist thought and culture of its day. It was under royal protection in the early Joseon, and is known as the place where Yi Seong-gye, King Taejo, stayed and practised in his old age.

In the decline of Buddhism after Queen Munjeong, Hoeamsa is taken to have fallen away and been gradually abandoned.

On the ridge north of the temple ground stand the stupas of Jigong and Naong together with the memorial stupa of the master Muhak. The site is a Historic Site, and the Muhak stupa a Treasure.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  Two hundred and sixty-six kan, on Nalanda’s model

  In 1328 Jigong rebuilt the temple as a great establishment of two hundred and sixty-six kan modelled on Nalanda in India.

  documented history

• Origin

  The largest temple in the country

  From late Goryeo into the mid-Joseon it was the largest temple in Korea, and King Taejo is known to have stayed and practised here in old age.

  documented history

• What people do here

  Three stupas on the ridge

  North of the temple ground stand the stupas of Jigong and Naong together with the memorial stupa of the master Muhak.

  documented history

This ground’s scale survives as a number. In 1328, the record says, Jigong rebuilt it at two hundred and sixty-six kan on the model of Nalanda in India. A man who had come from India by way of Yuan built, in Goryeo, a temple modelled on an Indian one; and from the late Goryeo into the mid-Joseon it was the largest temple in the country.

Gyeonggi’s temples are often recorded with a count of bays. Bongseonsa in Namyangju at eighty-nine, Silleuksa in Yeoju at more than two hundred, Heungcheonsa in Seoul at more than a hundred and seventy. The more the throne was involved, the more the size was written down.

This one, though, lost its size. The record says that in the decline of Buddhism after Queen Munjeong it fell away and was gradually abandoned — not burned but slowly emptied. That is also why this page is classed as a site rather than a temple.

What remains are the stupas on the ridge: Jigong’s and Naong’s, and the memorial stupa of Muhak, standing together. On Naong, this record says he rebuilt here in 1378, while Silleuksa in Yeoju records him dying there in 1376. The two do not mesh, and each is left as its own source has it.

Sources

1. 천보산 회암사(天寶山 檜巖寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 (accessed 2026-08-16)