Jamyeongsa Temple (Iksan)

About this place

Jamyeongsa is a small mountain temple on Useul Mountain in Yongan-myeon, Iksan-si, Jeollabuk-do, and is a practice center for bhikkhuni (Buddhist nuns). According to a temple history stele erected at the eastern entrance of the temple by the monk Jinmyeong in 1944 when Jamyeongsa was rebuilt, Jamyeongsa was founded by the monk Seonseol in 678 (the 18th year of King Munmu) during the Silla period, and was then called Jaeung-sa (Rooster and Hen Temple). Subsequent history is not transmitted. Later in the Joseon period, according to legend, a powerful family man named Min In-jae of Yongan-eup dreamed that the sound of a mooing cow from Jaeung-sa reached as far as the town, and finding this strange, renamed the temple Jamyeongsa. No Silla-era relics survive in the temple grounds today, but pottery sherds and tile fragments found nearby attest to its long history as an ancient temple. The temple precinct includes the Daeungjeon (main hall), Samseongak, and Beomjonggak bell pavilion, as well as two residential halls and a twin-lion stone lantern. The Daeungjeon is a three-bay-by-two-bay hip-and-gable roof building; the wooden seated Buddha enshrined in it is an Iksan-si local cultural heritage.