Gyeongheungsa (Gyeongsan)

About this place

Gyeongheungsa, located on Donghaksan Mountain in Gyeongsan, is a branch temple of Eunhaesa, the head temple of the 10th diocese of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. It was founded in 659 by Hyegong, but its history from then until the early Joseon period has not been handed down. It is said that Yujeong stayed here when the Japanese invasion (Imjin War) broke out in 1592, and that not long afterward it burned down. Later, Yeongyu, who had been at Gapsa on Gyeryongsan Mountain, created Buddhist statues and rebuilt it, and in 1897 Kim Sa-suk restored it. The existing buildings are the Daeungjeon, Chilseonggak, Sansingak, seungdang, and yosa, but the remains of the temple site show that it was once a very large monastery. It is said that until the end of Joseon, several dozen scholar-monks alone resided here. Within Gyeongheungsa are the wooden seated Shakyamuni Buddha triad (Treasure No. 1750) and a component of the sumidan (Gyeongsangbuk-do Cultural Heritage Material No. 555). A sumidan is the pedestal enshrining a Buddha statue, modeled on Mount Sumeru, the imaginary mountain said in Buddhism to be the center of the world.