Seongjusa Temple Site, Boryeong

This is the site of Seongjusa Temple, one of the Nine Mountain Seon Schools, a group of leading meditation (Seon) monasteries of the Silla and early Goryeo periods, located on the southern foot of Seongjusan Mountain in Boryeong. It was first built in the reign of King Beop of Baekje, when it was known as Ohapsa; during the reign of King Munseong of Silla, the monk Nanghye, who had returned from Tang China, greatly rebuilt the temple and renamed it Seongjusa. Although the temple stands in a mountain valley, unlike other Unified Silla temples it adopted a layout suited to flat ground. At the temple site, from south to north, stand the site of the middle gate, a stone lantern, a five-storey stone pagoda (a treasure), and the main hall, behind which stand, side by side from east to west, the East Three-storey Stone Pagoda, the Central Three-storey Stone Pagoda (a treasure), and the West Three-storey Stone Pagoda (a treasure), with the lecture hall behind them. To the northwest of the temple stands the Baengwolbogwang Stele of State Preceptor Nanghye (a national treasure), one of Choe Chi-won's Four Mountain Steles, four inscriptions composed by the Silla scholar. Excavations have uncovered many artefacts, including building foundation stones, the head of a clay Buddha statue from the Unified Silla period, and roof tiles from the Baekje, Unified Silla, and Goryeo periods. Seongjusa was the largest temple of its time, and the Baengwolbogwang Stele written by Choe Chi-won is the largest stone stele of Silla and holds very significant academic value.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Boryeong, Chungnam

Designation

Historic Site · 사적