Gulsansa Temple Site, Gangneung

Gulsansa Temple Site is a temple site located around the village hall of Witgol village, Haksan 2-ri, Gujeong-myeon, Gangneung. Gulsansa Temple was founded in 851, the thirteenth year of King Munseong of Silla, by National Preceptor Beomil (810–889), and was the central temple of the Sagulsanmun, one of Korea's Nine Mountain Seon Schools (Gusan Seonmun), the nine leading centres of the Seon (meditation) Buddhist tradition. The temple flourished under the patronage of local powerful clans during the Goryeo period, but it does not appear in documents after the early Joseon period, suggesting that it fell out of use around that time. Today the site preserves the largest set of flagpole supports (dangganjiju) of any temple in Korea, the Flagpole Supports at Gulsansa Temple Site (treasure); a stupa believed to hold the remains of National Preceptor Beomil, the Stupa at Gulsansa Temple Site (treasure); and a Seated Stone Buddha at Gulsansa Temple Site, Gangneung (Gangwon State Heritage Material), which together give a sense of the scale of the temple in its heyday. The surrounding area has since become farmland, so the exact extent of the temple precinct was unknown, but an emergency excavation carried out after flood damage from Typhoon Rusa in 2002 confirmed that the precinct measured 140 m east–west and 250 m north–south. Three cultural layers were identified in the soil profile: the first and second had been lost, but much of the third survived, and the remains of a main hall, monks' quarters, corridors and a pagoda site were also confirmed. Gulsansa Temple Site, Gangneung, was the central temple of one of Korea's Nine Mountain Seon Schools, and is a historically and academically valuable site where an emergency excavation prompted by flood damage from Typhoon Rusa in 2002 revealed the remains of a main hall, monks' quarters and corridors.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gangneung, Gangwon

Designation

Historic Site · 사적