Sansa and Buseoksa Temple

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Sansa

   Songnisan is a mountain with a long reputation, and the temple Beopjusa sits on its lower flank, in the middle of the country in North Chungcheong province, among pines, rock outcrops and clear streams. Tradition says the monk Uisin founded it in the middle of the sixth century, after returning from India with scriptures carried on a mule, and the name means Temple of the Dharma Abode. It was destroyed in the Japanese invasions of the sixteenth century and rebuilt, and its great wooden hall, Palsangjeon, is the only five-storey wooden pagoda still standing in Korea, a tall tiered structure that rises over the courtyard.

   Read the complete Sansa write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Sansa is where the day begins. Next is Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang.

2. 2. Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang

   The Nakdong river makes a wide loop around Hahoe, almost turning it into an island, and inside that loop a village of tiled-roof mansions and thatched cottages has stood for some six centuries. Hahoe is the ancestral home of the Pungsan Ryu clan, a lineage of scholar-officials during the Joseon dynasty, and its layout follows Korean principles of geomancy, with houses arranged to face the river and the cliffs of Buyongdae across the water. It was added to the World Heritage list in 2010, together with Yangdong village near Gyeongju, as the finest surviving examples of clan villages of the Joseon period.

   Read the complete Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang comes up about 111 km into the recorded legs. Next is Buseoksa Temple.

3. 3. Buseoksa Temple

   The name Buseoksa means temple of the floating stone, and the legend behind it involves a monk, a princess and a dragon. When the monk Uisang founded the temple in 676, after returning from studies in China, a young woman named Seonmyo who had fallen in love with him there is said to have followed him in the form of a dragon, and when local bandits opposed the new temple she lifted a huge rock into the air to frighten them off. A large boulder behind the main hall is still pointed out as the floating stone, and you will be told that a thread can be passed beneath it.

   Read the complete Buseoksa Temple write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 181 km into the recorded legs you reach Buseoksa Temple. Next is back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang.

4. 4. back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang, late in the day. Next is Sansa.

5. 5. Sansa

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Sansa write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Sansa. That is the ride.