Geoje Hacheongbuksa Temple Site

This site of Buksa Temple lies on the mid-slope of Aengsan Mountain, behind Gwangcheongsa Temple. On the sloping valley floor, three level terraces were created by building retaining walls, and remains survive of two building sites with stone foundations, a stairway between them, a wall, stone revetments, and a courtyard, an open yard between buildings. The only record of Buksa Temple is a bronze bell, now kept at Hyeilsa Temple in Saga Prefecture, Japan. Since the bell is inscribed as having been hung in 1026, the temple itself must have been founded before that date. Relics found during a preliminary survey of the temple site suggest a date range from the mid-Goryeo period at the earliest to the late Joseon period at the latest. This fits, to some extent, with the record that Jeongsusa Temple was built in 1623, in the Joseon period, after Buksa had fallen into ruin, although the exact details are not known. The bronze bell of Buksa Temple is 73 cm high and 51 cm in diameter, and weighs 121 geun. It was cast at Buksa Temple in Hacheong-bugok in the sixth year of the Taiping era of the Liao dynasty (1026, the seventeenth year of King Hyeonjong of Goryeo), and bears an inscription added in 1374. It is thought to have been carried off by Japanese pirates at the end of the Goryeo period. Jeongsusa Temple was newly built in 1623, the first year of King Injo, and is said to have had around seventy monks. The monk's stupa now standing behind present-day Gwangcheongsa Temple is said to be the stupa of a Jeongsusa monk.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Geoje, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물