Hayang Pogyodang (Gyeongsan)

About this place

Hayang Pogyodang, an Amitabha place of worship in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, is a branch temple of Eunhaesa, the head temple of the 10th diocese of the Jogye Order. There is no precise record anywhere of when it was founded. It is known only that it was established in the early Joseon period and that, owing to the Joseon policy of honoring Confucianism and suppressing Buddhism, it lost its true function as a temple and came to be used also as a lodging for Confucian scholars, until in 1927 the monk Ji Seok-dam renovated it to rebuild the temple. Together with the renovation, the monk Ji Seok-dam brought a Buddha from Eunhaesa and enshrined it, and it has been handed down to this day as the principal Buddha of the Geungnakjeon Hall. Seongbon, who became abbot in 2001, set about restoring the run-down grounds: he rebuilt the roughly 5-pyeong Geungnakjeon into 34 pyeong, renovated the Chilseonggak, enshrined a Buddha in the Seolbeopjeon, and built a kitchen hall, thoroughly renewing the temple's standing. Its site now occupies a broad urban basin of some 1,000 pyeong—among the five largest in the country—and the temple devotes itself to propagation, making known the Buddha's compassion and teachings. Hayang Pogyodang holds a dawn service at 5 a.m., a mid-morning offering (sasi bulgong) at 10 a.m., and an evening service at 6:30 p.m. every day, and it performs first-day-of-the-month prayers (the 1st of the lunar month), Ksitigarbha-day prayers (the 18th of the lunar month), and Avalokiteshvara-day prayers (the 24th of the lunar month). It also carries out various volunteer activities in the local community. The Buddhist youth association attached to Hayang Pogyodang regularly visits senior centers and children's facilities every year to deliver daily necessities and give comforting performances. In particular, children's dharma assemblies have been held without interruption, and since 2019 the Eunhaesa Buddhist college classes have been conducted at Hayang Pogyodang, so that educational activities are also carried out for local Buddhists.