Mireuksa Temple Site
미륵사지
The site of a temple founded under King Mu of Baekje. It has a plan found nowhere else: stone pagodas east and west with a wooden one between them, each with its own main hall behind it. The western stone pagoda is the oldest surviving stone pagoda in Korea.
Language
Place information
- Korean name
- 미륵사지
- Address
- 32-2 Giyang-ri, Geumma-myeon, Iksan-si, Jeonbuk State
History
under King Mu of Baekje
A temple raised over a filled-in pond
The Samguk Yusa says the king and queen were on their way to Sajasa when the Maitreya triad appeared in a pond below Yonghwasan, and that at the queen's request the pond was filled and pagodas, halls and cloisters were built at three places.
the plan
Three pagodas, three halls
Stone pagodas stand east and west with a wooden pagoda between them, and each has a main hall behind it, the three sets divided by cloisters — a plan without parallel.
22 June 1966
Designated a Historic Site
The Mireuksa temple site in Iksan was designated a Historic Site.
2019
The west pagoda's restoration completed
The restoration of the west pagoda, whose collapsed rear had been shored up with concrete, was finally completed in 2019.
2015
Inscribed as World Heritage
Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the eight sites making up the Baekje Historic Areas.
What to see
The west pagoda
The stone pagoda in front of the western hall, the oldest surviving stone pagoda in Korea, built by translating the techniques of timber architecture into stone.
The ondol floors
Ondol heating was found in the Goryeo and Joseon building remains, making the site a source for how underfloor heating developed. The temple was closed in the Joseon period.
The west pagoda selected
Nearby
Archaeological Site in Wanggung-ri
A site on the Iksan plain spanning the Baekje and Unified Silla periods. Several accounts have been handed down about it — a Mahan capital, King Mu of Baekje moving or duplicating his capital here, Anseung's Bodeokguk, Gyeon Hwon's Later Baekje capital — and excavation reads it as built across at least three periods. UNESCO lists it among the components related to the secondary Sabi capital.
Sunshine Studio
A standing set reproducing Hanseong at the turn of the twentieth century, its western, tiled and colonial-era buildings lining a tram route.
Gogung
The house of a Jeonju master cook who has worked at bibimbap alone, serving it with stone-plate bulgogi and tteok-galbi as a set.
Munheonseowon Confucian Academy
A Confucian academy honouring two late-Goryeo scholars, its lecture halls ringed by pines, lawn and crape myrtle.
Stories about this place
- Mireuksa: Three Pagodas, Three Halls, and 104 Years Under Concrete
Baekje temples normally had one pagoda and one hall. Mireuksa had three of each. And its western stone pagoda came down to us with concrete poured over its collapsed side by Japanese hands in 1915 — a restoration only finally completed in 2019.
Nearby Food
- Four Jeonju Bibimbap Houses and a Bean-Sprout Soup: Three in One Lane, One 4.7 km Out
- How to Find Regional Food in Korea
- A Guide to Banchan — The Name Records How It Was Made, Not Whether You Ordered It
- A Guide to Korean Noodles — What They Are Pulled From, and How They Arrive
- How to Read Korean Soup Names: Guk, Tang, Jjigae and Jeongol
- A First-Timer's Guide to Choosing Korean Food
Travel Guides
- How to Use Korean Convenience Stores: From Heating a Meal to Topping Up a Transit Card
- At a Korean Convenience Store, the Thing to Read Is the Package
- Eating Alone in Korea: Choosing and Ordering a Meal
- How to Order Korean BBQ
- Emergency Numbers and Safety in Korea
- Staying Healthy While Travelling in Korea
Related articles
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- Three filming locations in Pohang — and one invented village name became a market's real one
- Cheonmachong: four National Treasures out of a practice dig
- Geumgwanchong: found while digging house foundations, and the king named on the scabbard is still unidentified
Where these facts come from
- Korea Heritage Portal — Historic Site: Mireuksa Temple Site, Iksan (designated 22 June 1966; the west pagoda's concrete reinforcement was finally replaced in a restoration completed in 2019) ·
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Baekje Historic Areas (1477), stated as eight archaeological sites dating from 475 to 660 CE ·