On this site used to stand Unaksa Temple. It was built by Beopinguksa in 969, the 20th year of the reign of King Gwangjong of the Goryeo Dynasty.
In 1469, the first year of the reign of King Yejong, Queen Jeonghui, wife of King Sejo, established the tomb of her husband on this mountain and renamed the temple Bongseonsa. As the temple experienced several wars including the Imjinwaeran, Byeongjahoran, and the Korean War, it has been burned down and rebuilt several times. The peaceful and quiet temple gained its fame when the famous Korean novelist Chunwon Lee Gwangsu, and Sohae Choehaksong, Unam Kim Song-suk, and Go Eun, a famous poet, became friends with Unho, a former head monk of this temple.
The thickly wooded road in front of the temple toward the direction of Pocheon leads to the Forest Museum built and managed by the Korea Forestry Research Institute.
What to see
Bongseonsa Temple Daejong (Great bell of Bongseonsa Temple)
This work is one of the few bronze bells remaining from the early Joseon Kingdom, made before Japanese Aggression. It is 238 cm in height, 168 cm in mouth diameter, 23 cm in thickness and made in the first year of the King Yejong (A.D 1469).
The top doesn't have a dragon tub. It is a typical Joseon bell that two dragons leaning against each other play a role of loop of a bell. On the shoulder of the bell are double horizontal lines parting off it from the body. In the middle of the bell are threefold horizontal line dividing the body into up and down. On the upper part of the lines square panels with nipple-like protrusions and Buddhist Bodhisattva are arranged by turns, and on the down part a long article is engraved, which is written by Jeong Nanjong and composed by Gang Heemaeng. In the article a reason to make this bell is and the names concerned with the project are enumerated, to show it was a large-scale construction. And broadband is upward and far distant from the mouth of the bell.
It is appraised as a very important and great bell expressing well the characters of Joseon: the bigger mouth form than the Goryeo, horizontal band on the body and engraving technique.
Name of Cultural Properties: Bongseonsadaejong (Great bell of Bongseonsa Temple)
Created under a royal order by King Yejong (1468-69) in 1469, this is one of the few bronze bells of the early Joseon period (1392-1910) that survived the Japanese Invasion (1592-98). The bell has a handle of twin dragons on the top by which it can be hung. Images of standing Bodhisattvas and arabesque boxes and the triple lines and at each corner of the Bodhisattva images are graphic Sanskrit words. The inscription around the body was composed by Gang Huimaeng (1424-83), a renowned scholar of the time, and written by the calligrapher Jeong Nanjong(1433-89). It is about the bell's construction and lists the names of the founder and the artisans who worked on it.
Address
255, Bupyeong-ri, Jinjeop-eup, Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi-do. S.KOREA.
Tel: 031-527-5974
