Iksan Mireuksaji (Mireuk Temple Site) [UNESCO World Heritage]

About this place

The founding of Mireuksaji — the largest temple of Baekje — is recorded in the Samguk Yusa. Madong, later King Mu (the 30th king of Baekje, r. 600–641) who had married the Silla princess Seonhwa, was traveling with her to visit the monk Jimyeong at Saja Hermitage on Mt. Yonghua (present-day Mireuksan) when Maitreya Triptych suddenly appeared from a pond. Inspired by this vision, they founded Mireuksaji, building shrines, pagodas, and covered walkways for each of the three figures. An alternative view holds that the founding involved not only the faith of King Mu and Seonhwa but also political motives — specifically, that Mireuksaji was built in Geumma, historically the centre of Mahan power, to expand Baekje's national strength. The finest cultural capabilities of Baekje — architecture, craft, and more — must have been brought to bear in building this great temple; and as the Samguk Yusa records, Silla King Jinpyeong dispatched artisans to assist, suggesting the collected skills of all Three Kingdoms were deployed. Mireuksaji was clearly the focal point of Maitreya faith within Baekje Buddhism, contrasting with Hwangnyongsa of Silla, which served as the centre of Avatamsaka thought. Unlike Hwangnyongsa's one-pagoda, three-shrine plan, Mireuksaji followed a three-pagoda, three-shrine layout. Among its two notable artefacts, the Mireuksaji Stone Pagoda is a National Treasure — currently 14.24 m tall — and is Korea's oldest and largest stone pagoda. The stone pagoda is now almost entirely collapsed, with only six storeys of its north-east corner surviving (of an original estimated nine storeys). The East Pagoda was excavated and confirmed as a stone pagoda (not wood), then rebuilt as a nine-storey structure (27.67 m tall) in 1993. The Mireuksaji Flagpole Supports are a Treasure, 395 cm tall, believed to date before the mid-Unified Silla period; two supports stand east–west of the stone pagoda, approximately 90 m apart.