Jeseoksa (Gyeongsan)

About this place

Jeseoksa is a temple built at the birthplace of the Great Monk Wonhyo (617–688). Wonhyo was an eminent monk of Silla who championed 'unified Buddhism' (the Wonhyo, Bunham, and Haedong schools) and spread Buddhism among the common people. Revered as an indispensable figure in Korea's ancient history, its history of philosophy, and its history of thought, the standing and value of his original system of knowledge continue to be steadily re-examined not only in Asia but throughout the world. Wonhyo's mother, Lady Jo, conceived him after a dream in which a shooting star came to rest in her bosom. When she was near full term, as she passed beneath a chestnut tree in Yulgok to the north, she suddenly felt the onset of labor, so she hung her husband's clothes on the chestnut tree to make a birthing chamber and there gave birth; at that moment, it is said, five-colored clouds descended from the sky and covered the ground. For this reason the chestnut tree came to be called Sarasu, and because the size and thickness of its nuts were unlike ordinary ones, they were called Sarau. Later, Wonhyo built a temple beside the chestnut tree where he had been born and named it 'Sarasa'. According to legend, the Sarasa that had been built beside his birthplace after Wonhyo left home in the Silla period fell into ruin, and about 400 years ago a farmer plowing a field discovered a Buddha statue and the body of a pagoda and restored the temple. The stone seated Buddha, the broken pagoda body, and the lotus pedestal of a stone lantern that remain at Jeseoksa appear to date from the end of the Silla period, which suggests that Jeseoksa is the successor to Sarasa. In addition, on the 4th day of the 5th lunar month, Wonhyo's birthday, Jeseoksa holds an annual tea-offering rite and the Three Sages Culture Festival, which illuminates the lives and thought of the three sages—Wonhyo, Seol Chong, and Iryeon—and on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, the Dano festival, it takes part in the Gyeongsan Jain Dano Festival hosted by the city of Gyeongsan.