On a wide plain near Iksan, in the south-west of Korea, a large stone pagoda stands beneath a mountain, slightly incomplete and all the more striking for it. This is the west pagoda of Mireuksa, once the largest Buddhist temple of the Baekje kingdom, founded in the early seventh century by King Mu. The pagoda is the oldest and largest surviving stone pagoda in Korea, and after decades of collapse and a cement repair in the early twentieth century, it was carefully dismantled and restored in a project that took around twenty years, finishing in 2019. The temple site is part of the Baekje Historic Areas, listed by UNESCO in 2015.
According to legend, King Mu, as a young man known as Seodong, won the hand of Princess Seonhwa of the rival kingdom of Silla with a cunning song, and the temple was built at her request after the couple saw a vision of the Maitreya Buddha emerging from a pond. During the restoration, however, an inscription was found in the pagoda that named a different queen as the donor, adding a twist to the story. A reconstructed east pagoda and a museum displaying finds, including gold reliquaries, complete the site.
The riding around Iksan is easy, with flat to rolling roads through rice paddies, farmland and small towns. Motorcycles are not allowed on Korean expressways, so the national routes do the work here; they are well kept, if crowded near the cities. Further afield, the mountains of Jirisan and Deogyusan national parks offer more challenging and scenic roads, and the coast to the west has tidal flats and islands.
Iksan, a city of over a quarter of a million people, has plenty of fuel, shops and restaurants. Jeolla province, where Iksan lies, is famous throughout Korea for its food, with generous spreads of side dishes and dishes like Jeonju bibimbap from the nearby city of Jeonju. Visit the temple site in the late afternoon, when the light warms the stone and the mountain behind turns blue.