Bongeunsa Temple

SOUTH KOREA, Seoul

Bongeunsa means Temple of Offering Kindness. The temple was established by National Master Yeonhue in 794 during the Silla dynasty, and was named Gyeonseongsa Temple. In 1498, during the Joseon dynasty, the temple was expanded and renamed Bongeunsa. In 1562 the temple was moved to its current location. In 1593 and 1636 the temple was twice ravaged by war and later rebuilt. Most of the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1939 and other parts were damaged during the Korean war.
The buildings that can be found within the temple include the Great Hero Hall, Woodblock Hall, Sacred Mountain Hall, Mind Sharpening Hall, Judgment Hall, Mountain Deity Shrine, Heavenly King Hall, bell pavilion, as well as a Buddhist museum and a library. The Great Hero Hall was rebuilt in 1982. It contains statues of Sakyamuni Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, and the Medicine Buddha, behind which there are murals of the same Buddhas and their assemblies. Woodblock Hall, one of the few halls that escaped the fire of 1939, houses over 3,000 printing blocks of the Avatamsaka Sutra. The horizontal board inscribed with the title of the hall was written by the famous Korean calligrapher Kim Jeonghee. Behind the Panjeon Hall there is a 23 m high Maitreya Buddha statue. Erected in 1996, it is the largest Maitreya statue in Korea.