Naksansa

Naksansa stands on a headland 12 kilometres south of the cruise berth, in Yangyang County. It faces east over open water, which is the point of it. The temple's name is the Korean short form of Potalaka, the island home of Avalokitesvara. Koreans call that bodhisattva Gwaneum, the one who hears the cries of the world.

Uisang and the red lotus

The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture dates the founding to 671, the eleventh year of King Munmu of Silla. The founder was the monk Uisang, newly back from study in Tang China. The story is that he heard Gwaneum lived in a cave below these cliffs. He prayed on the rocks for seven days and nights. Then the bodhisattva rose from the sea on a red lotus, and he built a hall where bamboo sprang up at the spot.

Two places mark the legend. Hongnyeonam, the Red Lotus Hermitage, is built on pillars over the sea cave; a small window in its floor looks down at the water. Uisangdae is the pavilion on the rock where Uisang is said to have sat. The present pavilion dates from 1925. Both were listed together as a Scenic Site on 7 December 2007, and the whole temple became a Historic Site on 18 December 2008.

Burned, and burned again

A temple on a dry, windy coast burns. A forest fire took most of it early in the Goryeo period; the Mongol invasions burned the rest. Royal orders rebuilt it in 1467, 1469, 1631 and 1643. The seven-storey stone pagoda in the courtyard was raised from three storeys to seven in 1467. The Korean War burned it to the ground; an army corps commander had the main hall rebuilt in 1953.

The bronze bell was the treasure that survived everything. The Korea Heritage Service records it as cast in the fifteenth year of King Sejo and designated a Treasure on 19 December 1968. Yejong had it made for his father.

5 April 2005

The fire started at 23:53 on 4 April 2005 beside a road in Yangyang town, five kilometres away. The cause was never fixed; a cigarette was suspected. It was Arbor Day weekend, in the dry spring when the east coast's downslope wind blows at 15 to 20 metres a second. That day the gusts reached 26, then 29. Helicopters could not fly.

By seven in the morning the pines on Naksan beach were burning. The temple was saved once. In the afternoon the fire came back, took the outer gate at about three o'clock and reached the main hall, Wontongbojeon. At 16:42 the temple was recorded as destroyed. The fire burned 973 hectares, 309 outbuildings and the homes of 163 households before it was contained on the morning of 6 April.

The bronze bell that had survived the Mongols and the Korean War melted in its pavilion.

The bell melted in its pavilion. On 7 July 2005 it was struck from the Treasure list. What was left of it is kept in the temple's memorial hall.

Rebuilt from a painting

The temple did not rebuild quickly. Instead it chose to recover its Joseon-era form, and the guide was Naksansado, a painting of the grounds made by Kim Hong-do in 1778. Excavation found that the old foundations matched the painting's layout. Wontongbojeon and the Hongyemun gate were up again in 2007 and the Binillu pavilion in 2009. The encyclopedia lists more halls in 2009, and by 2015 the buildings were complete and the burnt forest recovering.

A 2025 report for the twentieth anniversary gives the figures. About 9.1 billion won went on the buildings between 2005 and 2009. Fire-prevention works and site repair followed, and the project closed in December 2012. Seven years from ash to finished temple.

The bodhisattva who faces the sea

The one thing the fire could not touch was granite. The Haesugwaneum, the Sea Gwaneum, stands on the hilltop above the temple. It is 16 metres tall, carved from about 750 tonnes of stone brought from Iksan in the south-west. The sculptor Kwon Jeong-hwan began in May 1972 and the statue was consecrated on 6 November 1977. She looks out to sea with a vase of healing water in her hand.

Naksansa today is a working Jogye temple with a reputation for sunrise. The east-facing cliff makes it one of the country's New Year viewpoints; Uisangdae at dawn is the picture on every Yangyang brochure. For a cruise passenger arriving at ten, the dawn is not on offer. The cliff path, the cave window at Hongnyeonam and the granite figure on the hill are.