Gaetaesa Temple Site

Gaetaesa Temple was built in 940, the twenty-third year of King Taejo of Goryeo, Wang Geon, after he had completely defeated the forces of Later Baekje. At the time, a portrait of King Taejo was kept inside the temple, and whenever there were signs of war in the country, prayers were offered before it for national peace. It appears that the temple gradually declined from the late Goryeo period onward owing to frequent raids by Japanese pirates. The temple was moved to its present site in 1428, the tenth year of King Sejong. Within the grounds stand the Three Buddha Statues of Gaetaesa Temple Site (Treasure No. 219), as well as a stone pagoda and an iron cauldron. This cauldron, said to have been used to boil soup during the temple's heyday, measures 3 m in diameter, 1 m in height and 9.4 m in circumference, lending credence to the tradition that several hundred monks once resided here. Building sites, plinth stones, a stone water trough, a Buddha statue pedestal and bamboo-pole stands remain, and a bronze banja (a flat bronze gong used in Buddhist rites) excavated here is held in the Buyeo National Museum. A seated stone Buddha statue that once stood at this temple site is now enshrined in a hermitage on Sangbangsan Mountain. The area around the Gaetaesa Temple Site lay on the route of advance taken by the Silla army when it allied with Tang China to attack Baekje in the late Three Kingdoms period, and it is famous as the place where the Baekje general Gyebaek led five thousand men in a suicide squad and fought Silla in their final battle at nearby Hwangsanbeol. It continued afterwards to draw attention as a strategic point for military affairs and transport. There is also an earthen fortress wall about 6 km long nearby, built to protect the temple.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Nonsan, Chungnam

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물