This is a temple which tells the story of sweet revenge.
Chondungsa is a temple on Kanghwado Island, west of Seoul. It was well
known as the sanctuary to which Korean kings and their courts fled to take
refuge from the numerous Mongol and Chinese invasions.
Chondungsa dates from the time of the 25th Koryo king, Ch'ungyol (r.
1274-1308). The king had two wives. The first wife was Chinese, a daughter
of Kublai Khan. The second was Korean, Queen Chonghwa. Because Queen Chonghwa
was jealous of the favor shown to her Chinese counterpart, she was imprisoned.
In her loneliness, she was drawn to the temple, then known as Chinjongsa.
She offered a beautiful jade lamp to the temple in 1282 from which the
name Temple of the Donated Lamp or Chondungsa came.
The first temple was built on the  site
in 381 CE, only nine years after the introduction of Buddhism to the Koguryo
Kingdom in 372. After that, the temple was burnt down and reconstructed
many times.
Chondungsa's present-day Main Hall dates back to 1855 and is a reconstruction
of a hall which was completed in 1621. It is a shrine to Sakyamuni Buddha.
The Buddha is flanked on the left by Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Perfect
Wisdom, and on the right by Samantabhadra, the Bodhisattva of Perfect Compassionate
Action.
As you approach the hall, look carefully way up in the eaves at the
corners of the roof, and there you can just see tiny human figures, one
at each corner. When the hall was being built, it is said, a carpenter
was hired. He stayed in the village next to the liquor shop. There he fell
in love with the daughter of the owner of the shop but, as he was poor,
he could only marry the girl when the hall was completed. Eventually the
carpenter was paid and he set off to claim his bride. The girl took the
money and ran away with her other love. The forsaken carpenter carved his
two-timing girl up in the rafters, eternally bearing the burden of her
deceitfulness.
Revenge at Chondungsa does not stop there. Just near the entrance, there's
a huge ginkgo tree. The tree was famous for the great yield which it gave
every year. Sometime during the Japanese Colonial Period, the oppressors
demanded more ginkgo nuts than ever before. At this Master Chusong, a monk
renowned for his special powers, became annoyed. For three days he chanted
under the tree and, from that day to this, not a single nut has fallen.
After the Main Hall, the next most important object to see is the iron
bell, which is housed in a small building near the entrance. The inscription
engraved on it says that it was cast at a Chinese temple, Chungmingsu,
in Hwaichow, China in 1097, during the Northern Sung Period; it is the
only Chinese bell designated a Korean treasure.
Another of Chondungsa's claims to fame is the fact that it was here
that the wooden printing blocks that make up the famous Tripitaka Koreana
were carved and stored; there are still 104 woodblocks kept at Chondungsa
- one was lost during the war. They are kept in the Main Hall to the right
of the Buddha.
There are three other important shrines at Chondungsa: a Medicine Buddha
Hall next to the Main Hall, a small building housing three of the traditional
gods, and a shrine to the ten kings and the Bodhisattva who helps people
who are in trouble.
In order to reach Chondungsa, you have to pass through the entrance
to Samnangsong Fortress. The fortress is said to have been built in a single
day by the three sons of the mythical founder of Korea, Tangun, who was
born in 2333 BCE.
Chondungsa Temple TEL(0349) 937-0125
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