Jeongamsa

Quick facts

Address

1410 Hambaeksan-ro, Gohan-eup, Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon

Spiritual entities

Jajang (慈藏, 590–658)

About this place

Jeongamsa is in Gohan-eup, Jeongseon, Gangwon, and is said to have been founded by the Silla monk Jajang. It is a branch temple of Woljeongsa, head temple of the fourth diocese of the Jogye Order. What Jajang is said to have enshrined here is unusually specific: the Buddha’s skull bone, a tooth, and a hundred relics. The Sumanotap that holds them is thought to be no later than the Goryeo period and was designated a National Treasure in 2020; the relic hall is estimated to date from the early eighteenth century.

Origin and history

The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture records Jeongamsa as a temple said to have been founded by the Silla monk Jajang. It is now a branch temple of Woljeongsa, head temple of the fourth diocese of the Jogye Order.

What Jajang is said to have enshrined is the Buddha’s skull bone, a tooth, and a hundred relics. The Sumanotap holding them is estimated to be no later than the Goryeo period, was repaired several times into the late Joseon period, and was designated a National Treasure in 2020.

The relic hall is estimated to have been built in the early eighteenth century, judging from its recorded repair in 1771.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotProtection & Safety

  A hall with no image

  The relics themselves are venerated, so no buddha image stands inside the hall.

  documented history

• Origin

  Skull, tooth, and a hundred relics

  What Jajang is said to have enshrined here.

  folk tradition

• Power spot

  The Sumanotap

  Thought to be no later than Goryeo, repaired into the late Joseon period, and designated a National Treasure in 2020.

  documented history

A relic hall holds relics of the Buddha’s body, so no image is enshrined inside. What is venerated stands behind the building: the stupa on the slope. Open the doors and there is an empty hall, and the pagoda beyond it. Of the five halls of this kind, this site carries Odaesan’s Jeongmyeol-bogung, Bongjeongam on Seoraksan, and this one.

Few such places record what was enshrined in this much detail. It remains, though, what is told — and the stupa is centuries later than Jajang.

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. 태백산 정암사(太白山 淨巖寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 — Academy of Korean Studies (accessed 2026-08-12)
2. 아산 이충무공 유허 — 국가유산포털 — Korea Heritage Service (accessed 2026-08-12)