Yeongoksa Temple, Gurye, South Korea

Yeongoksa Temple, Gurye, South Korea

800, Piagol-ro, Toji-myeon, Gurye-gun, Jeollanam-do, Republic of Korea

Throughout Jirisan Mountain, temples have taken root in valley after valley, gorge after gorge. There are many celebrated temples here, and each holds its own remarkable collection of cultural heritage. Yeongoksa is a temple of a thousand years, located in Naedong-ri, Toji-myeon, Gurye County, South Jeolla Province. Mention Naedong-ri, Toji-myeon, and most people will draw a blank — but say "the entrance to Piagol Valley on Jirisan," and nearly everyone will know exactly where you mean. A local bus runs from Gurye a few times a day, though in terms of geography, the temple actually sits closer to Hadong in South Gyeongsang Province than to Gurye in South Jeolla.

Yeongoksa was founded during the Unified Silla period by the monk Yeongi, and by the late Silla era had earned renown as a center of Seon Buddhist practice. Burned to the ground during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s, it was rebuilt in 1649, and in 1745, the twenty-first year of King Yeongjo's reign, a sacred wooden tablet made from a chestnut tree on the temple grounds was presented as an offering to the royal court. The temple was destroyed once again during the fighting in Piagol Valley in the Korean War, and it was not until 1965 that a handful of small halls were erected to keep the tradition alive. Full-scale restoration did not begin until after 1980. And yet tucked quietly within the grounds of this repeatedly devastated temple are cultural treasures of national treasure status — remarkable survivals whose presence, given the temple's turbulent history, feels almost miraculous.

Climbing several hundred meters up the ridge behind the temple, one comes upon two stone stupas standing on the hillside. These are National Treasure No. 53, the East Stupa of Yeongoksa, and National Treasure No. 54, the North Stupa of Yeongoksa — works that stand among the finest funerary stupas in all of Korea. No precise records survive to tell us whose remains they enshrine, but the two stupas, rendered with breathtaking sculptural skill, are precious testament to the extraordinary heights reached by Korean Buddhist art. Yeongoksa also retains a three-story stone pagoda designated Treasure No. 151, the stele of the Zen master Hyeongak designated Treasure No. 152, and two further stupas designated Treasure No. 153 and No. 154 respectively. All are works in stone — and it is precisely because they were made of stone that they endured through every destruction and have come down to us today.

Yeongoksa is also celebrated for its spring blossoms, and when the flowers blanket Piagol Valley in spring, it is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful temples in all of Jirisan. I visited in late autumn, and yet the atmosphere of the temple nestled amid the last of the falling leaves left a deep impression on me. The halls, painstakingly rebuilt after round after round of destruction, carry an air of quiet sorrow about them that is difficult to name but impossible to miss, and it is this quality, I think, that makes the temple grounds feel so tender and affecting. I found myself thinking that when the bright spring blossoms come to adorn Yeongoksa, they must only draw out a deeper, older grief from beneath all that beauty — and with that thought, I found it hard to turn and walk away.

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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