Yongmunsa, Yongmunsan

Quick facts

Address

782 Yongmunsan-ro, Yongmun-myeon, Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do

About this place

Yongmunsa stands on Yongmunsan in Yongmun-myeon, Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do. It is handed down that Wonhyo founded it in 649. The ginkgo in the temple courtyard is designated a Natural Monument; it reaches about forty-two metres in height with a trunk about fourteen metres around, and is known as the largest tree in Korea. Its age is estimated at around eleven hundred years. Two accounts of the tree are handed down together: that Maui, the last crown prince of Silla, planted it on his way to Geumgangsan, and that it grew from the staff Uisang carried and set into the ground, which took root. Under King Sejong of Joseon, it is said, the tree was granted a warrant of office corresponding to the senior third rank or above.

Origin and history

It is handed down that Wonhyo founded Yongmunsa in 649.

The ginkgo in the temple courtyard is designated a Natural Monument. It reaches about forty-two metres in height with a trunk about fourteen metres around, and is known as the largest tree in Korea. Its age is estimated at around eleven hundred years.

Two accounts of the tree are handed down together. One is that Maui, the last crown prince of Silla, planted it on his way to Geumgangsan. The other is that it grew from the staff Uisang carried and set into the ground, which took root.

Under King Sejong of Joseon, it is said, the tree was granted a warrant of office corresponding to the senior third rank or above.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  A tree granted office

  Under King Sejong of Joseon, the ginkgo is said to have been granted a warrant of office corresponding to the senior third rank or above.

  folk tradition

• Power spot

  The largest tree

  About forty-two metres tall with a trunk about fourteen metres around, it is known as the largest tree in Korea, and its age is estimated at some eleven hundred years.

  documented history

• Origin

  A prince planted it, or a staff grew

  One account says the last crown prince of Silla planted it on his way to Geumgangsan; another says it grew from Uisang’s staff set into the ground.

  folk tradition

What received rank at this temple was not a person but a tree. Under King Sejong, it is said, the courtyard ginkgo was granted a warrant of office corresponding to the senior third rank or above. A warrant of office is an appointment document, so the tree held a grade.

The tree’s size is on record by measurement: about forty-two metres tall, about fourteen metres around, known as the largest tree in Korea, and estimated at some eleven hundred years old. It is designated a Natural Monument.

Who planted it is not settled. One account says Maui, the last crown prince of Silla, planted it on his way to Geumgangsan. Another says Uisang set his staff in the ground and it took root. One tree carries two origins, handed down side by side.

Set against the other temples of Gyeonggi, where the record keeps how many bays the throne ordered built, what survives here is a single tree and the office that was given to it.

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. 용문사(龍門寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 (accessed 2026-08-16)