It is said that, on this mountain, Master Chajang chanted before a stone statue of the Bodhisattva beside a pond, hoping to fulfill his long-cherished wish to see Manjusri Bodhisattva. On the seventh night of his religious practice he had a dream in which the Buddha gave him a poem of four lines in Sanskrit. Next day, a monk came and remarked that the master  looked pale and troubled. Master Chajang explained that he had received a verse he could not understand. The mysterious monk explain the verse and then told the master to go to Odaesan in Shilla and that there he would find 10,000 Manjusris. After seven more days of chanting, a dragon appeared whotold him that the old monk had been Manjusri and that now hemust go and build a temple to the Bodhisattva.

In 643 CE, Chajang reached Odaesan, but the mountain was so veiled in fog that he couldn't see anything. During the three days that he waited he stayed in a thatched hut - much later, this hut became Wolchongsa. Various masters stayed here for different lengths of time until finally a temple was built. 

Burned down and rebuilt a number of times, the last disaster was during the Korean War (1950-1953), when about ten buildings were burnt down by the Korean Army because it had become a refuge for the rebel forces.

In the Main Hall there is a statue of Sakyamuni, but the more important statue is of an unusual  Bodhisattva, 1.8 meters high, probably a Medicine Bodhisattva. Said to have been found in the Diamond Pond to the south of the temple, the statue is offering something. The head is covered with a hat, the face is long and the ears are slightly hidden by long hair. Around the neck there are three lines which are so beautifully carved that they look like necklaces. The elbow is resting on the head of a young boy. Because of its unusual style, the statue is thought to have been carved in the 11th century by craftsmen belonging to a special sect.

Next to the Bodhisattva is an octagonal nine-story pagoda which stands 15.2 meters high and is representative of the many-angled, many-storied stupas of the Koryo Period. 

A more recent master, Han-am (1876-1951), lived in Sangwonsa, a nearby temple also dedicated to Manjusri. During the Korean War, the army was sent to burn the temple because it was harboring rebel forces. When the soldiers arrived, the master put on his ceremonial robes and went into one of the halls. The solders ordered him out but he replied, ¡°"You are soldiers, you must follow orders, it is your duty. I am a monk, so my duty is to keep this hall; please burn it and go."¡± The soldiers couldn't destroy it, so they only burned one door, preserving the rest of Sangwonsa, a home of Manjusri. 

Wolchongsa Temple TEL : (0374)32-5644~6

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