SANGWONSA TEMPLE

This temple was founded around the same time as Woljeongsa by the monk Jajang. It is rather small, but its main hall is original: it is L-shaped, and includes an altar and residence rooms. He escaped the destruction of the war. On the altar there are 2 statues of Munsu Bosal (Manjusri), one of which represents this child bodhisattva which dates from the beginning of Joseon and to which a legend is attached. King Sejo (1455-1468) had come to Sangwonsa to try to cure a disease. On the way he saw a stream and bathed in it out of sight. A child looked at him and the king asked him to rub his back. He then asked the child not to tell anyone that he had seen the king naked. The child replied, "Tell no one that you saw Munsu Bosal," and he disappeared. The king miraculously healed. There is also in this temple the oldest copper bell in Korea, melted under Silla in 725 and brought here from Andong in 1469.

You can climb from this temple in the mountain to Mount Birobong (1,563 m) and then descend via Sangwangbong to Route 446 (3.5 hours to the road, 5 hours to the Sangwonsa car park). After the Sajaam hermitage is Jeokmyeolbogung. It is one of the 5 reliquaries of the country supposed to contain the remains of the historical Buddha. It was the monk Jajang who brought them back from China. The altar is only open when there are prayers and, as in all reliquaries of this kind, there is no statue of the Buddha, only a cushion symbolizing the Buddha.