Bulgapsa Temple, Yeonggwang, South Korea

Bulgapsa Temple, Yeonggwang, South Korea

450, Bulgapsa-ro, Bulgap-myeon, Yeonggwang-gun, Jeollanam-do, Republic of Korea

South Jeolla Province is home to an unusually rich concentration of ancient temples preserved in every corner of the region. The southern areas of Haenam, Gangjin, and Yeongam in particular are thick with cultural treasures of national importance, and while the western coastal strip along the Yellow Sea has fewer such sites to offer, there is one place here well worth seeking out — Bulgapsa Temple, set against Bulgapsan Mountain in Yeonggwang. The temple sits at the foot of Bulgapsan in Moak-ri, Bulgap-myeon, Yeonggwang County, South Jeolla Province. Administratively it falls within Yeonggwang, but it lies roughly midway along the national road running from Gwangju toward Yeonggwang, and local buses run to it frequently from Yeonggwang town center.

The exact date of the temple's founding is uncertain, but tradition holds that it was established in 384 CE, the first year of Baekje King Chimnyu's reign, by the Indian monk Marananta. It was rebuilt during the Unified Silla period in the latter half of the eighth century, and expanded greatly during the late Goryeo period when the national monk Gakjin took up residence there — at its height, the temple's landholdings are said to have stretched more than ten ri in every direction. During the Joseon dynasty, the temple was burned down in the second phase of the Japanese invasions in the late sixteenth century and subsequently rebuilt by the monks Beopneung and Haeryong, before undergoing further rounds of restoration over the following centuries. More recent repair work was carried out in 1984 and again in 1996. The oldest surviving hall within the precinct is the Daeungjeon, designated Treasure No. 830, which faithfully preserves the architectural style of the mid-Joseon period. The grounds also contain a number of other halls, including the Palsangjeon, Chilseonggak, Ilgwangdang, Myeongbujeon, and Hyangnojeon.

I first visited Bulgapsa by chance during my twenties, while traveling through South Jeolla Province. More than ten years passed before I found my way back, and when I did, the atmosphere of the temple felt strangely unfamiliar — changed enough from what I remembered to throw me off balance. Wandering through the grounds, I could make out faint traces here and there of what the place had looked like a decade before, but for the most part it felt as though I were visiting for the first time. The layout of the precinct and the positions of the halls had not changed, so I kept asking myself why it all felt so foreign — and eventually the answer presented itself: the roof tiles. As it turned out, all the main halls had been completely re-roofed within the past few years.

Outside the temple grounds, too, much had changed. Ten years ago, I remembered it as a quiet, unhurried place with almost no visitor facilities to speak of — just the temple, sitting peacefully on its own. I have a clear memory of taking a taxi all the way to the temple entrance because there was nothing else around. On this return visit, however, a large parking lot had been laid out, and a cluster of shops and commercial establishments had grown up around the bus stop at the entrance. Traveling to well-known temples across the country, one encounters this pattern in many places — and Bulgapsa has followed the same path, equipping itself with the full range of amenities that modern visitors have come to expect. That, more than anything else, is what has transformed the place.

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