Yeongsanjeon, A Temple For Buddha’s Disciple

I went up the hill by the stairs behind Daeungjeon and found Yeongsanjeon.
Yeongsanjeon is for 16 disciples of Buddha.
The building was not huge. It would have been difficult to build a large building on a small ground on the hill. The appearance of the building was unique.

The lower part of the wall was made of stone.
Most of the traditional Korean architecture is wooden, so the walls are made of soil.
I had never seen a Buddhist building of which walls were made of stones until then.
Occasionally I saw the bottom of a pillar made of stone, but it was rare case to see stones at the bottom of the wall.
To be precise, the walls were made of a mixture of stone and soil.

I wondered why the walls of the building were made of stone.
Korean traditional buildings are made without structural design.
In the past, architects who built houses were called Daemok, they built the structures only with the images in their heads.
No matter how big the building was, they did not draw detailed blueprints.
Thus, all traditional Korean architectures vary in appearance depending on Daemok's insight.
If you look closely at traditional buildings, they all look different.
Discovering such differences is a crucial way to appreciate traditional Korean architecture.

In traditional Korean society, architects who built houses belonged to the lowest social class.
Usually, they were illiterate. They built a house only with experience and feeling.
So every time I see a house, I think of the insight of architects.

Yeongsanjeon was the most interesting building in Bongeunsa Temple.
There were statues of Buddha and 16 disciples in the building.
Ib most temples, the statues of the disciples are smiling.
It seems that those smiling faces are showing the delight of enlightened people.

The Buddha statue of Yeongsanjeon is slightly different from that of other temples.
The Buddha in Daewoongjeon looked holy, but the Buddha in Yeongsanjeon has a normal face and a smile.

The person who made the Buddha in Yeongsanjeon might have found enlightenment in everyday life.