Baedamsa Temple, Inje, South Korea

Baedamsa Temple, Inje, South Korea

746, Baekdam-ro, Buk-myeon, Inje-gun, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea

Baedamsa Temple, nestled at the heart of the inner Seorak range, is a place connected to two figures who left profoundly significant marks on Korea's modern and contemporary history. It is also, for me personally, a place threaded through with memories from childhood. Heading out from Inje in Gangwon Province toward the junction for Hangyeryeong Pass and turning in the direction of Jinburyeong, one soon reaches the entrance to Baedamsa at Yongdae-ri; from there, an unpaved road winds upward for some eight kilometers before the temple comes into view. In years past, visitors would walk this path for two hours, or make the journey by taxi or private car. But returning after twenty years, I found that everything had changed: all private vehicles are now stopped at the national park entrance, and the only way to reach the temple parking area is by a shuttle bus run for a fare of two thousand won each way. The shuttle, I was told, is operated by residents of the surrounding village — a welcome sight of the kind one more often associates with famous tourist destinations or national parks abroad.

Baedamsa, revisited after nearly twenty years, has changed a great deal. What was once a small and modest hermitage has expanded considerably; multiple new halls now stand within the precinct, and the temple runs templestay programs alongside various other revenue-generating activities, much like well-known temples elsewhere in the country. The atmosphere of remote solitude that I remembered from before — the sense of a place deep in the mountains, quietly keeping to itself — has largely disappeared, and I felt a faint pang of regret at finding it gone. Yet the valley stream of the inner Seorak flowing before the temple was as beautiful as ever, and for a long while I found myself lost in memories of my university years, when I had climbed the trail from this very spot up through Bongjeongam Hermitage all the way to Daecheongbong Peak — a route I completed three times in those days.

According to the temple chronicle written by the monk Manhae Han Yong-un, Baedamsa was founded in 647 — the first year of Queen Jindeok, the twenty-eighth ruler of Silla — by the monk Jajang, under the name Hangyesa, and was renamed Baedamsa in 1783. This brings me to Manhae Han Yong-un himself, the author of that chronicle, who cannot go unmentioned here. The name Manhae Han Yong-un may call to mind first and foremost his poetry collection The Silence of Love, but Manhae was far more than a poet: he was the preeminent Buddhist intellectual of the Japanese colonial period, a leading figure in the resistance against Japanese rule, one of the thirty-three representatives of the Korean people who signed the Declaration of Independence during the March First Movement of 1919, and the founder and driving force behind the Korean Buddhist Youth Association — one of the most prominent independence activists of his era.

Perhaps because of this, once one understands that background and looks at Baedamsa with fresh eyes, the entire atmosphere of the place seems suffused with Manhae's presence. The experience of passing through Baedamsa in youth as little more than a waystation on the way to climb Seoraksan, and the experience of returning with a true understanding of the temple's history, are entirely different things. Baedamsa was never a large temple to begin with, and it holds no particularly notable cultural artifacts. Yet the spirit of Manhae Han Yong-un that permeates this place, and the traces he left here, are alone enough to give the whole temple an overwhelming weight.

There is, however, a second figure associated with Baedamsa — former President Chun Doo-hwan. Having seized power through the military coup of May 1980 and subsequently convicted of massive corruption following his time in office, Chun served part of his sentence before receiving a presidential pardon, after which he retreated to Baedamsa for several years of self-imposed seclusion, eventually returning to his home in Seoul once public attention had subsided. Baedamsa stands at the center of that chapter of his life. Standing within the temple grounds and holding both men in mind, the contrast could not be starker: one figure's legacy grows only brighter, the other's only more squalid. Had Chun known how history would judge him, one imagines he might have thought twice before choosing to take refuge in a place so imbued with Manhae's moral and spiritual legacy.

There is an irony in all of this. Baedamsa was once little more than a small hermitage — precisely the quality that gave it such warmth and intimacy. But in the wake of the former president's stay and the notoriety it brought, the temple appears to have grown several times over in scale, expanding into something rivaling the more established temples of the country. For someone who travels in search of Korea's finest and most unspoiled temples, it registers as something of a blemish on an otherwise fine picture. I arrived at Baedamsa at four in the afternoon, and after an hour of wandering through every corner of the grounds, it was five o'clock; the sun was beginning to settle against the mountainside, and the temple, caught in the backlight, took on a quality of quiet mystery. It was just at that moment that I had to hurry away to make the return journey, and riding the shuttle bus back down to Yongdae-ri, I let my thoughts drift once more to those precious memories of younger days.

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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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Dogapsa Temple, Yeongam, South Korea

Dogapsa Temple, Yeongam, South Korea

306, Dogapsa-ro, Gunseo-myeon, Yeongam-gun, Jeollanam-do, Republic of Korea

At the foot of Wolchulsan Mountain, which rises at the heart of the southern provinces, there are two temples that simply must not be missed. The first is Muwisa in Gangjin; the second is Dogapsa in Yeongam. Both temples are home to wooden structures of national treasure status that hold exceptional importance in Korean history, and each deserves at least one dedicated visit. The approach to Dogapsa is distinctive in its own right. Climbing a few stone steps and then walking several hundred meters along a stone-walled path that runs horizontally beside a stream, one eventually arrives at the Haetalmun — the Gate of Liberation — and passing through it, enters the temple precinct.

When I visited Dogapsa some ten years ago, the grounds were scattered with broken foundation stones and fragments of stone architectural members lying here and there, like pieces on some ancient battlefield, offering a vivid suggestion of the temple's former glory. On this return visit, however, the precinct looked considerably changed. Walking through it slowly and trying to understand why, I realized that buildings had appeared which had not been there before. The broken stonework that had once been strewn across the grounds had been cleared away, and in its place stood a new Daeungjeon — modest in size but neatly proportioned, a two-story structure with a hipped-and-gabled roof.

Dogapsa is said to have been founded by the national monk Doseon in the sixth year of Silla King Heongang's reign, toward the end of the Silla period. Records from the Goryeo era have since been lost, but during the Joseon dynasty, under royal command in the reign of King Sejo, the eminent monk Sumi undertook a large-scale reconstruction, and the temple grew at its height to an impressive complex of 966 bays. On this visit, I spent some time wandering the grounds in search of the National Treasure-class wooden structure that had been my primary reason for coming — only to realize, after some searching, that I had already walked right past it. It was the Haetalmun gate I had passed through on the way in. This is National Treasure No. 50, the Haetalmun of Dogapsa. On my first visit, I had not even been aware of its significance. It had looked like nothing more than an ordinary entrance gate, unremarkable and easy to walk past without a second glance.

Looking at it again now, however, I could see it clearly: simple and unassuming, yet perfectly balanced, unmistakably the work of skilled hands shaped by centuries of time. It was one of those moments perfectly captured by the Korean saying, you see as much as you know. Dogapsa is not a temple that demands a great deal of time to take in, and so on the way back I stood before the Haetalmun for a long while, looking and looking again, moving around it from different angles before finally turning to leave. I found myself wondering whether it was precisely because it had attracted so little attention over the years that it had survived so safely and so intact across all that time.

According to a construction record discovered during restoration work in the 1960s, the Haetalmun of Dogapsa was commissioned in 1457, the third year of King Sejo's reign, by the monks Sumi and Sinmi, and completed in 1473, the fourth year of King Seongjong's reign. Spanning three bays across the front and two bays deep, it is an early Joseon wooden structure of quiet and refined beauty — unpretentious yet possessing an understated elegance — and it continues to serve to this day as the working entrance gate to the temple. Dogapsa is an essential stop on any journey through the southern provinces, and together with Muwisa on the far side of Wolchulsan Mountain, it stands as a precious cultural site — neither grand nor ornate, yet without a single element that could be called superfluous.

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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Muwisa Temple, Gangjin, South Korea

Muwisa Temple, Gangjin, South Korea

308, Muwisa-ro, Seongjeon-myeon, Gangjin-gun, Jeollanam-do, Republic of Korea

Muwisa is a temple I visited once long ago — so long ago that the memory has grown hazy — yet it left a strong enough impression that I filed it away as a place one simply must stop at when traveling through this part of the country. It was only later, after learning more about the Geungnakjeon hall at Muwisa, that I found myself making the journey a second time, with a far clearer sense of purpose than I had carried on my first visit. Muwisa Temple, located in Gangjin County, South Jeolla Province, cannot be reached by public transportation. Apparently, the buses stopped running some time ago due to a lack of visitors. Left with no other option, I took a taxi to the parking area, and from there followed a gently rolling hillside path up into the temple grounds.

Passing through the iljumun and haetalmun gates and climbing a short flight of steps — not particularly steep — the National Treasure No. 13, the Geungnakjeon hall of Muwisa, comes into view directly ahead. The principal hall of the temple is a single-story, single-eave wooden structure with a column-head bracket system (jusimpo) and a gabled roof, spanning three bays across the front and three bays deep — not unlike a smaller version of the Daeungjeon at Sudeoksa Temple. This building was the reason I had come. And so I stood at a respectful distance, turning my gaze this way and that, studying it carefully from every angle. It does not carry the imposing grandeur of the Daeungjeon at Sudeoksa, and yet it struck me as a complete work of art in itself — nothing to add, nothing to take away.

Muwisa is said to have been founded in 617 CE, the thirty-ninth year of Silla King Jinpyeong's reign, by the great monk Wonhyo. It was subsequently rebuilt in 875 CE, the first year of Silla King Heongang's reign, by the national monk Doseon, and went through multiple rounds of reconstruction during the Goryeo dynasty before reaching its present form. The Geungnakjeon in particular was erected in 1430, the twelfth year of King Sejong's reign during the Joseon dynasty, under the patronage of Hyoryeong Daegun, a son of King Sejong, and stands as a foundational reference point for early Joseon architecture. Among all surviving wooden structures in Korea, those built during the late Goryeo and early Joseon periods rank among the oldest still standing, and it is generally the case that any building confirmed to date from this era is designated a National Treasure — the Geungnakjeon at Muwisa is no exception.

During restoration work in 1956, a set of wall paintings covering all four interior walls of the Geungnakjeon was discovered — believed to have been created around the same period as the hall itself and now designated National Treasure No. 1315. When further repair work was carried out in 1974, the paintings were carefully detached from the walls, and a dedicated conservation pavilion was subsequently built on the grounds to house and display them separately. After taking in the Geungnakjeon, one's eye is drawn to a stele standing with considerable presence to the right. This, too, is no ordinary monument — it is the Stele of the Great Master Seongak, a Goryeo-period artifact designated National Treasure No. 507. Memorial steles with their inscriptions fully intact are uncommon, but this one has been preserved in its entirety, text and all.

Muwisa sits at the foot of Duryunsan Mountain, but it is not a temple buried deep in the forest — the surroundings are open and unenclosed, and depending on the weather, the place can take on a somewhat spare and wistful quality. Perhaps that is why, as I spent time there, I kept imagining what it must look like toward the end of the day, as evening settles in. What kind of scene would unfold as darkness began to fall across that wide, open view from within the grounds? With these pleasant thoughts turning in my mind, I made my way back down from Muwisa, passing construction work already underway to expand the parking area and install new visitor facilities. My sincere hope is that when I return someday, whatever new additions may have taken shape by then, the quiet and beautiful character that defines Muwisa today will have been left undisturbed.

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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Seonunsa Temple, Gochang, South Korea

Seonunsa Temple, Gochang, South Korea

70, Seonunsa-ro, Asan-myeon, Gochang-gun, Jeonbuk-do, Republic of Korea

For many people in Korea, Seonunsa Temple first entered their consciousness not through a guidebook or a school lesson, but through the lyrics of a song sung by the beloved folk singer Song Chang-sik. Those without a particular interest in Buddhist heritage may have little idea that Seonunsa sits on the northern slopes of Dosolsan Mountain in Gochang County, North Jeolla Province, or what makes it such a distinctive place. The origins of this ancient temple are traced through two competing accounts: one holds that it was founded by the Silla king Jinheung, while the other credits the eminent Baekje monk Geomdан Seonsa, who is said to have established the temple in 577 CE, the twenty-fourth year of King Wideok's reign. After falling into ruin, the temple was rebuilt in 1354, the third year of Goryeo King Gongmin's reign, by the monk Hyojeong, and went on to be reconstructed and expanded several more times during the Joseon dynasty, taking the form it holds today.

The oldest surviving structure at Seonunsa, the Daeungbojeon main hall — designated National Treasure No. 290 — was razed to the ground during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s and rebuilt in 1613, the fifth year of King Gwanghaegun's reign. Perhaps it is this long and storied history that gives the hall its air of particular gravity and antiquity. The Daeungbojeon is a square-plan structure spanning five bays across the front and three bays deep, built in the multiple-bracket (dapo) style with a gable roof. Its round columns employ the graceful entasis technique — slightly wider in the middle than at top or base — making it one of the finest surviving examples of late Joseon wooden architecture. While certain temples are especially beautiful in one season or another, Seonunsa is widely celebrated as a temple that truly comes into its own in spring.

Behind the main halls, which are arranged along a single axis, stands a grove of wild camellias designated as a natural monument — and there is little disagreement that the season when those camellias bloom is the finest time to visit Seonunsa. Though I have not yet had the chance to see the camellia blossoms in person, simply standing within the temple grounds and imagining the scene is enough to sense the atmosphere and beauty that must fill this place each spring. The overall layout of Seonunsa bears a resemblance to that of Jikjisa Temple in Gimcheon and Pyochungsa Temple in Miryang, with the principal halls arranged in a broad horizontal configuration across flat ground. A small stream runs along the front of the temple, and the main structures are spread across a wide open plain. Entering through the iljumun gate, one follows a path that runs alongside the precinct before stepping into the grounds proper, where the Manseру Pavilion stands rather alone in the center of the complex.

The grounds carry a somewhat sparse, exposed feeling — and if one were to visit in the awkward in-between seasons of late autumn or early spring, this open layout would no doubt make the place feel all the more bare and desolate. Perhaps it is precisely this quality, this sense of solitude and melancholy, that inspired the lyrics of Song Chang-sik's song. The atmosphere inside the precinct is strikingly unfamiliar compared to most historic temples, and for that reason, Seonunsa seems like a place better suited to visiting with company than coming to alone.

Another thing that struck me while exploring Seonunsa was the remarkable number of hermitages attached to the main temple — Chamdangam, Dosolam, Dongunам, and Seogsangam, among others. Of these, Chamdangam Hermitage is particularly worth noting. Perched near the summit of Dosolsan Mountain, it is a small and secluded retreat, but it houses a Daeungjeon hall — originally founded by the Silla-era monk Uiunhwasang and rebuilt during the Joseon period after several rounds of restoration — that has survived to this day and been designated National Treasure No. 803. The Daeungjeon at Chamdangam is modest in scale, spanning just three bays by three, but it is regarded as a fine example of the classic eighteenth-century dapo architectural style and is highly valued as a cultural heritage site of exceptional beauty from the late Joseon period.

For those with the time and inclination, I would strongly recommend combining a visit to Seonunsa with a hike up Dosolsan Mountain to seek out Chamdangam Hermitage. Doing so will naturally call for choosing a good season and setting aside a full day — which in turn means you will sidestep the bleakness of the in-between months altogether. There are times when a small hermitage tucked quietly away from the world leaves a deeper impression and a more lasting resonance than any grand temple complex, and Seonunsa, I think, is very much one of those places.

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.

Contact: 7sevensmart@gmail.com

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https://www.photonuri.com