• Gangwon-do

    Woljeongsa Temple – 월정사 (Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do)

    Temple History Woljeongsa Temple, which is located in Odaesan National Park in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do, means “Moon Vitality Temple,” in English. The temple was first founded by the famed monk Jajang-yulsa (590-658 A.D.) in 643 A.D. Mt. Odaesan (1563 m) is a transliteration of the Chinese characters for Mt. Wutai-shan, which is where Jajang-yulsa met the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Munsu-bosal. But before getting too far ahead of ourselves, and like so many other temples in Korea, Woljeongsa Temple has quite the creation myth surrounding it. In 636 A.D., and according to the Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, circa the 1280s), Jajang-yulsa traveled to Tang China to study Buddhism. Jajang-yulsa…