Unjusa

Quick facts

Address

91-44 Cheontae-ro, Doam-myeon, Hwasun-gun, Jeollanam-do

About this place

Unjusa lies on Cheonbulsan in Doam, Hwasun, South Jeolla, and is said to have been founded by the Unified Silla monk Doseon. The story goes that Doseon read the country’s terrain as a ship, and fearing it would list because Honam — the hull — had fewer mountains than Yeongnam, raised a thousand buddhas and a thousand pagodas here in a single day and night by the force of his practice. Twenty-one stone pagodas and eighty stone buddhas remain. The grounds were designated a Historic Site in 1985.

Origin and history

The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes Unjusa as a temple on Cheonbulsan in Doam, Hwasun, said to have been founded by Doseon, a monk of Unified Silla.

The name Unjusa is said to come from geomancy, from land shaped like a moving ship.

Twenty-one stone pagodas and eighty stone buddhas remain today, along with other fragments of images and pagodas. On 15 April 1985 the grounds around the temple were designated a Historic Site.

What it is locally associated with

• OriginProtection & Safety

  To steady a listing ship

  Doseon is said to have read the country as a ship and, fearing it would tip toward mountain-poor Honam, raised a thousand buddhas and pagodas.

  folk tradition

• Power spot

  Twenty-one and eighty

  Twenty-one stone pagodas and eighty stone buddhas remain today, with other fragments of images and pagodas.

  documented history

• Origin

  Land shaped like a moving ship

  The name Unjusa is said to come from geomancy — land in the shape of a ship under way.

  folk tradition

Ask what was being protected here and the answer is not a person. It is the land.

The story runs that Doseon read the country’s terrain as a ship. Honam, which answers to the hull, had fewer mountains than Yeongnam, and fearing the ship would tip to one side he raised a thousand buddhas and a thousand pagodas here in a single day and night by the force of his practice. The temple’s name is said to come from the same reading: land shaped like a moving ship.

The encyclopedia sets this down as legend. What is actually still standing is twenty-one pagodas and eighty stone buddhas. The distance between a thousand and eighty is also, walking this valley, the thing you can see.

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. 천불산 운주사(千佛山 雲住寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 — Academy of Korean Studies (accessed 2026-08-12)