Bongeunsa Temple

Jinyeomun Gate

The first gate, standing where other temples put an iljumun. Jinyeo means things as they actually are, so passing through it is entering the Buddha's world. The Seonjeongneungji records it as standing from the temple's founding; it burned with almost everything else in the great fire of 1939.

Beopwangnu

'The hall of the king of the dharma', a pavilion facing Daeungjeon. The midday service is held here, along with the large assemblies, and it holds 3,300 Avalokitesvara votive figures. Completed in 1997.

Seonbuldang

Raised in 1941, in the rebuilding after the 1939 fire, on what had been Simgeomdang's site. Its hipped-and-gabled roof carries four extra small gables front, back and sides, so six read at once — an unusual arrangement. The name means the place where one practises towards awakening.

Three-storey Stone Pagoda

A standard three-storey pagoda in the courtyard before Daeungjeon, holding one relic of the Buddha.

Daeungjeon

Rebuilt in 1982. A two-tier canopy stands over Shakyamuni at the centre, with Amitabha and Bhaisajyaguru to either side — the wooden triad that is Treasure 1819. The dragons carved on the front stair are a royal motif.

Jijangjeon

The hall of Ksitigarbha, where the dead are commended to rebirth in the Pure Land. It burned to the ground in June 2002 and was rebuilt at more than three times its former size, consecrated in December 2003.

Yeongsanjeon

Shakyamuni attended by Kasyapa and Ananda, with the sixteen arhats ranged beyond them, and the painted scrolls that go with each.

Bukgeukbojeon

Rebuilt in 1942 alongside Yeongsanjeon. It holds the mountain spirit, the seven stars and the lone saint, which is why it is usually called a samseonggak. The seven-star deity was believed to grant wealth and ability, lengthen children's lives and bring the rain — folk belief grafted onto Buddhism.

Yeonggak

Portraits of eight monks line the walls, from Yeonhoe, the temple's founder, through Bou, Seosan and Samyeong. On the right wall is an altar for 201 war dead. Built as Chungnyeonggak in 1967 and doubled in size and renamed in 1992.

Simgeomdang

'Seeking the sword of wisdom to cut the grass of ignorance' — a name often given to a meditation hall. It stands right of Daeungjeon, facing Seonbuldang, five bays across under a hipped-and-gabled roof. Recorded as standing from the founding, lost in the 1939 fire, rebuilt in 1941.

Jongnu (Bell Pavilion)

It holds the four instruments — bell, drum, cloud gong and wooden fish — struck at the start of the dawn and evening services. The bell is for the beings in hell, the drum for animals, the cloud gong for spirits in the air and the fish for those in water.

Avalokitesvara of the Lotus Pond

In the middle of the pond below the belfry, in the Korean tradition: a vase of sweet dew in the hand, Amitabha carved into the crown. The pond stands for one of the nine lotus ponds of Amitabha's paradise.

Panjeon

Built in 1855 to house the eighty-one volumes of the Avatamsaka Sutra that the monk Yeonggi and the calligrapher Kim Jeong-hui cut together; more were added later and it now holds 3,438 blocks. It is the oldest building at Bongeunsa, and the board over its door is Kim Jeong-hui's last piece of writing.

Mireukjeon

In front of the great Maitreya. It is the old Beopwangnu, moved here unchanged when the new one was built.

Maitreya Plaza

The great Maitreya was begun in 1986 and finished in 1996, ten years of work with more than ten thousand contributors. At 23 m it is the largest Buddha in the country. The plaza around it is for prayer, and sometimes for performance.