🎧 Yul's Korea Audio Guide
Bongeunsa Temple & Starfield Library
Narrated in English with Korean phrases by YUL of KVIBE IDOLS.
🎵 Background music: Still in That Spring (그 봄에 머물러) — KVIBE IDOLS · Listen to the full song →
Full transcript
Annyeong, yeoreobun! It's Yul. Right now we're in Gangnam. Skyscrapers, luxury shops, a giant mall... and right across the street, a Buddhist temple founded more than twelve hundred years ago. Welcome to Bongeunsa!
The temple was founded in 794, in the Silla era, by a monk named Yeonhoe, and it was first called Gyeonseongsa. In 1498, it was rebuilt with the support of Queen Jeonghyeon and became known as Bongeunsa. And from 1551 until 1936, it served as the main temple of Korea's Seon, or Zen, Buddhism.
Now find a hall called Panjeon. It keeps woodblocks of the Flower Garland Sutra, carved in 1855, and it even survived the Korean War. And the signboard above its door? It was written by the legendary scholar and calligrapher Kim Jeong-hui, known as Chusa, just three days before he died.
You also can't miss the giant stone Maitreya Buddha, 23 meters tall, completed in 1996.
Then cross the street for the plot twist: inside COEX Mall is the Starfield Library, opened in 2017, with bookshelves about 13 meters high and around fifty thousand books. Ancient woodblocks on one side, a mega library on the other. Gangnam Style, history edition!
Yul's tip! Bongeunsa runs temple stay programs where you can experience a monk's life and a temple meal. Visit the temple in the quiet morning, then head to the library for photos. The library is free to enter.
Next, let's go to a market over a hundred years old, where Netflix found legendary noodles. Kaja!
