Tongdosa Temple, Yangsan

Tongdosa Temple was founded in 646, the fifteenth year of Queen Seondeok of Silla, by the Vinaya master Jajang. Yeongchuksan Mountain, on which the temple stands, takes its name from a mountain east of Rajagriha, capital of the kingdom of Magadha in the Buddha's time. Because the shape of this mountain was thought to correspond to that of India's Yeongchuksan, where the Buddha preached the Dharma in person, the temple came to be called Tongdosa. It is also said to be called Tongdosa in the sense that all who wish to become monks must receive the precepts at the Geumgang Gyedan Ordination Platform, where the Buddha's true relics (sarira) are enshrined. The Daeungjeon Hall originally refers to a hall enshrining Shakyamuni Buddha, but Tongdosa's Daeungjeon Hall contains no separate Buddha image; instead, the Geumgang Gyedan is installed at the rear of the building, enshrining the Buddha's true relics. The present building was first erected in the time of Queen Seondeok of Silla; after it burned down during the Japanese invasions of 1592 (the Imjin War), it was rebuilt in 1645, the twenty-third year of King Injo of Joseon. In Buddhism, the Geumgang Gyedan is the place where the most important ordination ceremony in the process of becoming a monk takes place, carrying the symbolic meaning that the Buddha is always present there. The platform standing today has been repaired many times over the Goryeo and Joseon periods and retains the traditional form of Korean ordination platforms. Tongdosa is thus a place scattered with countless cultural heritage items, including the Daeungjeon Hall -- a representative mid-Joseon building designated a National Treasure -- and the Geumgang Gyedan, which holds the Buddha's true relics, as well as numerous pagodas and stone lanterns.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yangsan, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물