Hongryongsa Temple

It is a temple founded by the great monk Wonhyo during the reign of King Munmu of Silla. When the great monk Wonhyo preached the Hwaeomgyeong (Avatamsaka Sutra) to 1,000 monks from Tang China on Cheonsan Mountain, he founded it under the name "Naksu-sa." It is said that the monks at that time washed themselves in the waterfall next to this temple and listened to Wonhyo's teachings, hence it was named Naksu-sa. The mountain where the temple is located, Cheonsan Mountain, was originally named Wonjeoksan, but it is said to have been changed to Cheonsan Mountain [千聖山, Mountain of a Thousand Saints] because all 1,000 monks from Tang China attained enlightenment and became saints. Hongnyongsa Temple was burned down during the Japanese invasions of Korea (Imjin War), and for hundreds of years, only its temple site remained. In the 1910s, the monk Beophwa from Tongdosa Temple rebuilt it, and it is said that the temple's name, Hongnyong, originated from the name of the waterfall within the temple grounds. Hongnyong Waterfall has a first and second waterfall, and there is a legend that in ancient times, a celestial dragon lived beneath the waterfall and ascended to heaven on a rainbow. After Woogwang was appointed abbot in the late 1970s, it underwent repeated reconstruction and renovation, leading to its present state. Existing buildings include the Daeungjeon (Main Buddha Hall), Jonggak (Bell Pavilion), Seonbang (Zen meditation hall), and Yosachae (monks' living quarters), and there is an Okdang (Jade Hall) next to the waterfall.