Gobulmae Plum of Baegyangsa Temple, Jangseong

This old plum tree is a red plum (hongmae) variety that blooms with deep pink flowers around late March each year; its beautiful colour and subtle fragrance enhance the atmosphere of the mountain temple. Its trunk, which divides into three branches near the base, retains the dignity of an old tree, and its clean form preserves the original elegance of the plum blossom. It is said that from around 1700, monks planted and tended several plum trees in the front yard of the old Baegyangsa Temple, about 100m north of this site. When the temple was relocated and rebuilt here in 1863, one surviving red plum and one white plum were transplanted along with it, but the white plum later died, leaving only the present red plum tree. The tree stands 6.8m tall, and the circumference at breast height of its three divided trunks is 1.2m, 0.77m and 0.6m respectively. The Gobulmae Plum of Baegyangsa Temple, Jangseong received its present name in 1947, when the Gobul Buddhist Monastic Community (Gobul Chongnim) was formed at Baegyangsa Temple to honour the Buddha's original teachings. Given its great historical and academic value, it is designated and protected as a natural monument.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jangseong, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Natural Monument · 천연기념물