Daejeonsa Temple, Cheongsong, South Korea

Daejeonsa Temple, Cheongsong, South Korea

226, Gongwon-gil, JuWangSan-myeon, Cheongsong-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Republic of Korea

Juwangsan in Cheongsong, North Gyeongsang Province, was recently elevated to the status of a national park. Daejeonsa Temple, situated at the very entrance to the Juwangsan hiking trail, is a place of such striking beauty that anyone who has visited will find its scenery forever etched in memory. The temple was founded in 672 AD, the twelfth year of King Munmu of Silla, by the monk Uisang, and was later rebuilt in 919 during the reign of King Taejo of Goryeo by the monk Neuleung. Burned to the ground during the Japanese invasions of 1592, it was reconstructed in 1672, the thirteenth year of King Hyeonjong of Joseon, and has stood in its present form ever since. Located within Juwangsan National Park, the temple is well served by frequent buses from Cheongsong town, and virtually every hiker heading into the mountain passes through its grounds.

Daejeonsa is known as the place where the monk Samyeong Yujeong trained his army of warrior monks to resist the Japanese forces during the invasions. The temple does not hold a great many designated cultural treasures, but its main hall — the Bogwangjeon — is its oldest surviving structure and has been listed as Treasure No. 1570. A three-bay wooden building with a dapo-style bracket system and a gabled roof, the Bogwangjeon was undergoing dismantlement and restoration works at the time of my visit, so I was unable to see it in its complete form. Even so, the three-story stone pagoda and the sweeping view of Juwangsan rising behind the hall compose a scene worthy of a calendar photograph. A single replacement worship hall and a monks' quarters stand in for the rest — and that is essentially all there is to Daejeonsa. Everything here is wonderfully simple, and the temple's unpretentious atmosphere, set against such breathtaking scenery, is something I found deeply appealing.

Most temples seem to have been set down within the natural landscape as if placed there deliberately. Daejeonsa feels different — as though the temple was built first, and the mountain arranged behind it afterward. The boundary between the hiking trail and the temple grounds is barely defined, so nearly every hiker passes straight through the precinct. Within the grounds, a rather impressive cairn tower stands as testament to the countless hikers who have added a stone one by one over the years. I have seen similar stone stacks at other temples, built by devoted worshippers, but the cairn at Daejeonsa feels like a natural part of the temple itself, standing solidly with Juwangsan as its backdrop.

Along the trail running from the national park ticket booth to the temple entrance, local vendors operate souvenir shops, restaurants, and various small stores. Being summer, kongguksu — cold noodles in soybean broth — seemed to be on offer everywhere. I found myself wondering what this dish has to do with the region's local specialties, and came up with no clear answer, yet the kongguksu restaurants were unmistakably numerous. It struck me once again that there are still so many untold stories tucked away in corners of this country that most people have never heard of. The more I travel across every nook and cranny of Korea, the more that feeling refuses to leave me.

If you would like to experience a unique side of Korea, the "Land of the Morning Calm," please feel free to reach out. I host small, private guided tours tailored for international visitors.

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