Pagyesa, Palgongsan

Quick facts

Address

741 Pagye-ro, Dong-gu, Daegu

About this place

Pagyesa stands on Palgongsan in Dong-gu, Daegu, and is handed down as founded in 804 by the royal master Simji. Its central hall, the Wontongjeon, was begun in 1605 and completed in 1606 according to a construction record found there; it runs three bays by three, with a wooden floor inside. A seated wooden Avalokitesvara is enshrined in the Wontongjeon, and during a regilding in 1977 a robe of King Yeongjo came out of the cavity within the image. Hyeoneung declined an offer made by the throne and asked instead to enshrine the tablets of earlier kings, building the Giyeonggak to hold the tablets of Seonjo, Sukjong, Deokjong and Yeongjo. The Wontongjeon and the dry-lacquer Avalokitesvara with the objects from within it are designated Treasures.

Origin and history

Pagyesa is handed down as founded in 804 by the royal master Simji.

The Wontongjeon, its central hall, was begun in 1605 and completed in 1606 according to a construction record found there. It runs three bays by three, with a wooden floor inside.

A seated wooden Avalokitesvara is enshrined in the Wontongjeon, and during a regilding in 1977 a robe of King Yeongjo came out of the cavity within the image.

Hyeoneung declined an offer made by the throne and asked instead to enshrine the tablets of earlier kings, building the Giyeonggak to hold the tablets of Seonjo, Sukjong, Deokjong and Yeongjo.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  A robe from within the image

  During a regilding in 1977, a robe of King Yeongjo came out of the cavity within the seated wooden Avalokitesvara.

  documented history

• Origin

  A refusal that became a building

  Hyeoneung declined an offer from the throne and asked instead to enshrine the tablets of earlier kings, building the Giyeonggak for Seonjo, Sukjong, Deokjong and Yeongjo.

  documented history

• What people do here

  The Wontongjeon, begun 1605

  By its construction record the hall was begun in 1605 and completed in 1606.

  documented history

The best-known event at this temple is a taking-out. In 1977 the Avalokitesvara was opened for regilding, and a robe of King Yeongjo came out of the cavity within it. Clothing a king had worn had been inside a Buddhist image.

Daegu’s temples hold several passages of this kind. Eunjeoksa on Apsan takes its name from a cave where Wang Geon hid three days; at Bukjijangsa a building’s true name lay in its ridge-beam record for more than two hundred and fifty years until a repair uncovered it; Buinsa on Palgongsan lost the Tripitaka blocks brought there for safety. Concealment and disclosure recur on this city’s mountains.

One other thing survives here: a refusal. Hyeoneung did not accept what the throne offered, and asked instead to be allowed to enshrine the tablets of earlier kings. The Giyeonggak, holding the tablets of Seonjo, Sukjong, Deokjong and Yeongjo, is what that refusal became.

The building’s dates are firm. The Wontongjeon was begun in 1605 and completed in 1606. The founding is a tradition: the royal master Simji, in 804.

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 파계사(八公山 把溪寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 (accessed 2026-08-16)