Mireuksa: Three Pagodas, Three Halls, and 104 Years Under Concrete

The first thing to count at a temple site is the pagodas. The count tells you the idea behind the temple.

Baekje temples normally had one pagoda and one main hall. Mireuksa had three of each. That single number separates Mireuksa from every other Baekje temple.

Opening hours and location are on the place page for the Mireuksa site. This article is about why there were three, and what happened to the west pagoda. The other surviving Baekje stone pagoda is at Jeongnimsa.

At a glance

Three pagodas, three halls
Unlike the typical Baekje plan of one pagoda and one hall, this compound was built with three pagodas and their halls.
The largest, and the earliest
The west stone pagoda is the largest in Korea and the earliest among those whose founding date is firmly known.
Probably nine storeys once
It is thought to have had nine storeys but survived broken to part of the sixth, standing about 14.2 metres.
Concrete in 1915, finished in 2019
Concrete was applied over the collapsed part in 1915, and the restoration was only finally completed in 2019.

A pond filled in

A founding story survives, and it explains the plan.

According to the Samguk Yusa, in the reign of King Mu the king and queen were travelling to Sajasa when the Maitreya triad appeared in a pond below Yonghwasan, and at the queen's request the pond was filled and a pagoda, a hall and cloisters were raised at three places.

Three places. The number is already in the story, and the excavated plan matches it. Stone pagodas stand east and west with a wooden pagoda between them, each with a hall behind it enshrining the Buddha, the three sets divided by cloisters — a highly unusual arrangement.

The simplest reading is that a triad of Maitreya called for a temple in three parts. It amounts to three parallel temples inside one wall, separated only by cloisters.

The records show Mireuksa was founded in the reign of King Mu and closed in the Joseon period.

A void under the floor

Two small findings from the excavation are worth having.

The halls are five bays across the front and four deep, with a void beneath the floor, which is read as a measure against damp in the floorboards. The floor was raised. How a seventh-century building handled moisture survives as a structural fact.

And ondol heating was found in the Goryeo and Joseon building remains, which makes the site an important source for how underfloor heating developed. It is a Baekje temple site, but the ondol is not Baekje's. The temple went on being used until it closed under Joseon, and each age that used it laid its floors again.

The west pagoda, and 104 years

Most of the story of this site is concentrated in one pagoda.

The Mireuksaji stone pagoda is the western of the three. It is the largest stone pagoda in Korea and the earliest built among those whose founding date is firmly established.

It is thought to have had nine storeys, but survived broken, standing only to part of the sixth. The surviving height to the sixth storey is about 14.2 metres, and the two-tier platform is about 12.5 metres wide.

Its twentieth-century condition is on the record. The exact original form is unknown; masonry was added around the first storey before the seventeenth or eighteenth century, and in 1915 Japanese hands applied concrete over the collapsed part, in which state it came down to us.

The restoration replacing that concrete shoring was finally completed in 2019.

From 1915 to 2019 is 104 years. Anyone going to see this pagoda now belongs to the first generation in a century to see the oldest stone pagoda in Korea without the concrete.

Stone handled like timber

Up close it becomes clear why this pagoda is described as built with the techniques of timber architecture.

The first storey is three bays on each side, with a doorway in the central bay giving passage in all four directions by steps. The pagoda has doors, and you could walk through it. The silhouette is a pagoda; the structure is a building.

The pillar stones show entasis, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, and the corner-rise technique lifting the two end corners slightly. Beneath the pillars are separate base stones as in timber buildings, with upper and lower tie stones linking pillar to pillar, and architrave and bracket-wall stones above them.

The names of timber members carry straight over: base stone, tie beam, architrave, bracket wall. Moving the craft from wood to stone moved the vocabulary with it. The roof section makes the same soft curve as a timber roof, the corners lifting slightly and the middle dipping.

The pagoda was designated a National Treasure on 20 December 1962 and dates to the late Baekje period, the seventh century.

How not to confuse it with the east pagoda

One thing to know before you arrive: two pagodas stand on this site and they are entirely different objects.

The one to the west is the National Treasure — broad, low, uneven in the colour of its stone, stopping at six storeys. The one to the east is a twentieth-century reconstruction: white, slender, rising to nine storeys, with a metal finial on top.

Photographs of the east pagoda captioned as "the Mireuksaji stone pagoda" are common. The test is simple — count the storeys and look at the top.

The site was designated a Historic Site on 22 June 1966. In 2015 it was inscribed as one of the eight components of the Baekje Historic Areas, with UNESCO grouping the Wanggung-ri palace and Mireuksa in Iksan under the secondary Sabi capital.

Look into the central bay of the west pagoda's first storey. There is a doorway, there are steps, and it opens in all four directions. That one feature — a pagoda you could walk through — explains in a glance why this object sits at the beginning of the stone-pagoda tradition. Then go and see the five-storey pagoda at Jeongnimsa to see where the tradition went.

Worth pairing with this

Frequently asked questions

Why three pagodas?

The Samguk Yusa says that after the Maitreya triad appeared, the queen asked for the pond to be filled and a pagoda, hall and cloister raised at three places. The excavated plan matches: stone pagodas east and west, a wooden one between, and a hall behind each.

How many storeys did the west pagoda have?

It is thought to have had nine, but survived broken to part of the sixth, about 14.2 metres tall.

When was the concrete added and removed?

Concrete was applied over the collapsed part in 1915, and the restoration was finally completed in 2019.

What is the white pagoda on the east side?

A twentieth-century reconstruction, not the National Treasure. The west pagoda stops at six storeys and its stone is uneven in colour; the east one rises to nine and has a metal finial.

Why is there ondol at a Baekje temple site?

The ondol was found in Goryeo and Joseon building remains. The temple stayed in use until it closed under Joseon, which is why the site documents how underfloor heating developed.