Master Uisang was eagerly studying in China when a piece of secret information was revealed to him. T'ang warlords were planning to attack, conquer and annex Shilla, Uisang's beloved home land. The information came to the young monk through the lovelorn daughter of a high ranking T'ang official at whose home Uisang was staying. Uisang lost no time. He immediately set out to warn his country men. Finding the master gone, the daughter rushed after him, but was too late for the ship had already weighed anchor and was disappearing over the horizon. In desperation the girl flung herself into the sea and drowned. This supreme act of sacrifice transformed her into a dragon which guarded over the ship all the way back to Shilla. The attack averted, Uisang set himself to the task of searching for the ideal temple site.

He found it on Mt. Ponhwang-san but the villagers refused to vacate the chosen spot. Once again, the dragon appeared. Threatening to hurl a massive rock on the village, the people fled and the dragon came crashing to the earth and exhaled its last breath. This is the site of the Main Hall of Pusok-sa today. To the west you can see a piece of rock, a small portion of the one hurled by the dragon. Therefore Pusok-sa is called "Temple of the Floating Stone." Uisang averted another Chinese invasion by performing a special ceremony some years later.

From a geomancy point of view, Pusok-sa is very auspicious. In Korean, as in Chinese, geomancy is called the study of "wind and water." The ideal site should be encircled by mountains with specially high ridges on the northern side extending to the east. These ridges are known as the Blue Dragon. On the western side there should be some more ridges and these are know as the White Tiger. In addition, Pusok-sa, constructed in 676 at the orders of King Munmu, is a temple which shows the transition period between those originally built in the plains during the period of the Three Kingdoms and those built in the mountains during the Koryo and Choson periods. The original temples were centered around a single pagoda--single Main Hall pattern. The later temples consisted of a Main Hall and two pagodas.

>From the beginning Uisang made the temple the headquarters of his Avatamsaka sect. However, Korean Buddhism is never quite so clear-cut. The temple also has all the trappings of one dedicated to Pure Land, to the philosophy of the Western Paradise presided over by Amitabha Buddha. Therefore the Main Hall, National Treasure No. 18, enshrines Amitabha. Originally built in 676, the present structure dates from 1358, one of the oldest wooden buildings in Korea. The architectural style is worth looking at closely. The foundation is of granite. The columns supporting the roof are fitted with brackets which seem complicated at first but which are actually amazingly simple. The hipped-and-gabled roof is in perfect proportion to the body of the building, giving the hall a unique feeling. Inside, the statue sits in the west facing east because it is an Amitabha, Buddha of the Western Paradise. It is the oldest clay statue in Korea, National Treasure No. 45, and, although it is a Koryo statue, it reflects faithfully the style of Shilla statues.

To the left of the Main Hall, at the bottom of a steep bluff, lies the legendary floating stone. To the right of the stone is a three-storey pagoda behind which is a pavilion dedicated to the Chinese girl who, in the form of a dragon, helped Master Uisang. The portrait in the pavilion is of the same girl.

Chosadang, National Treasure No. 19, a hall for keeping the portraits of great masters, lies 100 meters to the northeast of the Main Hall. It was built 150 years after the Main Hall. Originally, the building was decorated with wall paintings but these have been moved to a protected place. The six frescoes, four of guardians and two of Bodhisattvas, are National Treasure No. 46 and they are the best existing examples of Koryo Period wall painting.

Just under the eaves of Chosadang, there is a tree. It sprang from a stick which Uisang put there on his way to India. He is reputed to have foretold that if a tree grew it would never die. And so it is, ever green and blooming after 1,300 years!

Pusok-sa has many treasures. The flagpole supports are Treasure No. 255; the Koryo wood-blocks are Treasure No. 735; the pudo, conical stone objects in which the remains of famous monks are kept; the two stone pagodas; and the monument to Master Wonyung, a National Teacher of the Koryo Period, are only some of the wonderful objects which have survived Korea's turbulent history. In particular, the stone lantern, National Treasure No. 17 which dates from the Unified Shilla Period, should be carefully looked at. A masterpiece of proportion and design, the fine reliefs of lotus petals and Bodhisattvas make it a precious gem.