Hye Gwangsa | Attraction Guide | K-Travel Mate

Hye Gwangsa, affiliated with the Korean Buddhist Beophwa sect, was founded in 1931. The temple buildings of Hye Gwangsa were originally built during the Japanese colonial period by a Japanese monk named 'Tuhyeon,' who relocated a building formerly used as the guesthouse of Jaein-hyeon in the Joseon Dynasty to this site and constructed it as a Japanese-style temple to propagate Japanese Buddhism. It is said the Japanese monk chose this location because it was the center of Gyeongsan at the time and was a feng shui auspicious site shaped like a lotus flower floating on water. After liberation, a Korean monk named Hye Gwang who had lived in Japan resided here, abandoning Japanese-style Buddhism and registering the temple under the Korean Buddhist Beophwa sect. At this time, the temple was named Hye Gwangsa after the abbot's Dharma name, and a Buddhist altar painting enshrined in the current Daeungjeon was brought from a temple in Korea, firmly establishing its status as a temple of the Korean Buddhist Beophwa sect. However, over time, Hye Gwangsa gradually declined and was on the verge of near abandonment until 1975, when Venerable Hye Mun of the Beophwa sect was newly appointed abbot, rebuilt the Daeungjeon, transformed the temple into its present form, and has served here to this day.