Seonbuldang Hall of Bongeunsa Temple

Bongeunsa Temple was called Gyeonseongsa in the Goryeo period. In 1498, the fourth year of King Yeonsangun of Joseon, Queen Jeonghyeon rebuilt Gyeonseongsa as the wonchal - a temple maintained to pray for the repose of a royal figure - for Seolleung, the tomb of King Seongjong (r. 1469-1494), and renamed it Bongeunsa. It was one of the greatest temples of Joseon and played a major part in the revival of Buddhism, but it was burned during wars such as the Imjin War of 1592 and was rebuilt and repaired several times. The Seonbuldang Hall of Bongeunsa Temple, now designated as heritage, is a meditation hall where the laity practise seated meditation; it burned down completely in a fire in 1939 and was rebuilt in 1941. Records confirm that in the seventh year of King Myeongjong, Bongeunsa held the seunggwa, the examination candidates had to pass to become monks, and this is how the hall came to be named Seonbuldang, "the hall of selecting Buddhas". Rebuilt on the site once occupied by Simgeomdang Hall, this single-storey wooden tiled-roof building has a facade of eight bays and a depth of three bays, in the chogikgong bracket style, yet unusually its actual interior structure has five bays across the front. It is centred on a large room four bays wide from east to west and three bays deep from north to south, with rooms enclosing three of its interior sides, and it has a paljak roof, a hipped-and-gabled roof whose side takes the shape of the character 八. Although not old in construction, and somewhat altered where the interior ceiling and rear section have been repaired, it is valued as a rare and precious wooden building of this style and scale within the city of Seoul.

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Where it is

Region

Gangnam-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산