Tongdo Temple
Master Ja Jang's Mysterious Buddha-Jewel Monastery
By David A.Mason
Contributing Writer
Buddhism as it is taught and practiced today might seem to the public to be an entirely rational philosophy, or an advanced type of psychology. However, its ancient history and colorful artworks are replete with esoteric mysteries that fascinate and delight even those who are not religious.
Tongdo Temple is one of Korea's grandest and most highly-revered monasteries, but one that has always intrigued me with the sense of sacred mystery that imbues its history and physical features.
Tongdo Temple is located in South Gyeongsang Province between the ancient Silla capital of Gyeongju and Busan City. Having its own exit off the primary national expressway makes it unusually easy to access, compared to other major monasteries. I have visited it many times over the years, both privately and as a tour guide, and always feel a sense of wonder.
It is sometimes called "the Temple without a Buddha," a seeming absurdity that presents the first mystery. It's famous for retaining many of its old wall-paintings depicting scenes from Buddhist teachings and unique Korean folk motifs.
These have not been repainted for a long time and have been allowed to fade naturally, giving this busy temple an ancient feel. Aficionados of traditional Korean art know and love these romantically aged artworks dearly.
Even its name "Tongdo" is enigmatic, composed of unusual Chinese characters that are very difficult to translate. They could simply be translated as "crossing over," to be understood as walking on a safe bridge over dangerous waters, or transitioning from this mundane world into the realm of enlightenment. However, they come from ancient Buddhist scriptures and have a deeper meaning which Buddhist scholars have interpreted as "redeeming all sentient beings from suffering through mastery of the teachings."
In addition, the tales of the temple's origin are filled with mystical visions and magical events. They take us back to the early seventh century, when the relatively minor Silla Kingdom (57 BC-935 AD) was a rapidly-rising power.
Master-monk Ja Jang was a key early figure in importing and organizing more advanced Buddhist practices as a strong foundation for this blossoming kingdom. Consecrating mountains to Buddhist deities and constructing a string of temples for them along the mountain ranges of the east coast, he greatly expanded the cultural and territorial influence of the young faith and intricately wove it into Korea's indigenous traditions which held mountains as sacred.
Ja Jang was a brilliant and respected monk and undertook the perilous journey to study under the great Buddhist masters of Tang Dynasty China in 636. He sought wisdom in the Wutai-shan Mountains, already a vast centuries-old monastic complex devoted to Munsu-bosal, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. During a series of revelatory mystical visions of this deity, he was given invaluable holy gifts: the monastic-robe and wooden begging-bowl of the original Sakyamuni Buddha, a fragment of Buddha's skull, and 100 of the Buddha's "sarira" (jewel-like crystal remains left after cremation).
After further studies, Ja Jang returned to Silla and was given the highest honors by Queen Seondeok, who authorized him to use the holy relics to establish new temples throughout her realm in order to consecrate its territory and spiritually inspire its citizens.
In 646, he traveled south and found an excellent site in a valley surrounded by steep ridges. He renamed the highest peak (1,090 meters) to the north, Yeongchuk-san, after the Himalayan "Vulture Peak" where Buddha is said to have taught the Lotus Sutra, one of Mahayana Buddhism's most important scriptures.
The mountain is still also sometimes called by its original name, Chuiseo-san, which refers to its abundance of useful herbs. The entire lovely area is now one sector of Mt. Gaji Provincial Park, a favorite of hikers.
Legend tells us that the valley was originally uninhabited due to nine malevolent dragon-spirits living in a pond there. Ja Jang used his mystical ritual powers to defeat and expel all of them but one, who obediently pledged to protect the future temple. There is still a small stone-lined pond in the first courtyard that people say is the remnant of the original, with the guardian-dragon still residing there. It is called "Guryong-ji" or "Nine Dragons Pond." Most pilgrims fearlessly stroll across the short granite bridge on their way to the main temple buildings, reflecting this temple's "crossing over" theme.
Master Ja Jang first built a small hermitage on the mountainside, where he lived while supervising the temple's construction. It still exists today and is called Jajang-am. He designed a large granite "budo" (funerary-monument) on a stone platform behind Tongdo Temple's Main Hall, enshrining within it the holy relics of Buddha he had received from Munsu-bosal.
He named this monument the Geumgang Gyedan or Diamond (Vajra) Altar, honoring the classic Diamond-Cutter Wisdom Sutra. He issued a directive that every monastic in the nation must have their ordination ceremony in front of this monument, and this custom is still maintained by the dominant Jogye Order almost 1,400 years later.
He designed the Main Hall as a Dae-ungjeon having only a window in its rear wall above the wooden altar with no Buddha statue, at that time a unique architectural innovation (but now copied in other similar shrine-temples in Korea). His intention was that those who worship in this hall direct their attention directly towards the monument filled with relics, symbolically towards the Buddha himself, with no intermediating statue. This is why people call Tongdo "the Temple without a Buddha" ― one mystery solved.
But then there comes another: Ja Jang is also said to have built and lit the "Beopdeung" (Dharma-candle) in this Main Hall, and the monks claim that it has never gone out, becoming an "eternal flame."
Tongdo was Korea's first temple to have a Jeokmyeol-bogung or "Shrine containing some of Sakyamuni Buddha's holy relics." Ja Jang himself established five more of these Jeokmyeol-bogung temples, including four that still stand in Gangwon Province. These five 14-centuries-old shrines are popular pilgrimage destinations for contemporary Buddhists wishing to venerate the original Enlightened One. Tongdo Temple, as the leader among them, has therefore become known as the "Dharma Jewel" of Korea's famous "Three Jewel Temples"(which will be fully explained in my next article in this series).
Tongdo Temple has flourished throughout Korean history, never declining. By the early Joseon Kingdom, the valley contained hundreds of buildings and thousands of monks. Much of it was destroyed by Japanese invaders at the beginning of the Imjin War at the end of the 16th century, but the unique Main Hall survived. It was last repaired in the early 17th Century and remains as one of Korea's most authentic and treasured wooden buildings, designated as National Treasure No.144.
Today Tongdo Temple is Korea's largest monastic complex, housing around 500 monks and nuns and having 17 hermitages, the highest number in the nation. It contains 19 designated treasures and 794 cultural properties. The Seongbo Museum or Sacred Treasure Museum near the entrance displays excellent ancient artifacts, inspiring many books about Korean Buddhism's artistic legacy. Hundreds of pilgrims visit every day to perform prayers, devotions and meditations in front of the holy Diamond Altar, which people still say is respected by the local birds and emanates a strange light at nationally-auspicious times.
I join with the many visitors who appreciate the faded sacred mysteries infusing Master Ja Jang's Tongdo Temple. For more information about the author, visit www.san-shin.org.