Unjusa Temple Site, Hwasun

Unjusa, which preserves the legend that State Preceptor Doseon built a thousand Buddhas and a thousand pagodas in a single night, is the site of a Goryeo-period temple set in a basin among low hills. The exact date of its founding is unknown, but it appears to have flourished greatly from the mid- to late Goryeo period; it was rebuilt on a large scale in the late fifteenth century but was abandoned during the Jeongyu War (1597–1598). The name Unjusa (雲住寺) means "the place where clouds dwell," though it is also written with characters meaning "a temple that moves a boat" (運舟寺). At present only about 70 stone Buddhas and 18 stone pagodas remain, but it is thought that as many as a thousand Buddha images and pagodas stood here until the early Joseon period. The stone Buddhas scattered across the hills and fields vary greatly in size, from several tens of centimetres to giant figures over 10 metres tall. Their flat, rustic features and awkward, unbalanced proportions well illustrate the regional character of Goryeo-period sculpture in this locality. The stone pagodas are equally distinctive in the shape and style of their carved patterns, ranging from three to five to seven storeys. Some are of unusual form, such as a round, ball-shaped pagoda or a disc-shaped pagoda resembling stacked flat cakes, and geometric patterns such as "X," a diamond, and the character 川 are carved into some of their surfaces. Unjusa is also famous for its reclining Buddha (wabul). Legend holds that as Doseon was raising the thousand Buddhas and pagodas in a single night, he intended to set this Buddha upright as the very last task, but a young monk, weary of the labour, falsely announced that the cock had crowed, so the Buddha was never raised. In gathering such unusual stone Buddhas and pagodas together within a single temple, Unjusa is a fine example of a distinctive local devotion to the thousand Buddhas and thousand pagodas, and remains an important site for the study of Korean art history and the history of Buddhism. (The name was changed from Hwasun Unjusaji Vicinity to Unjusa Temple Site, Hwasun, by notice of 28 July 2011.)

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Hwasun, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Historic Site · 사적