Gunsu-ri Temple Site

A wide stretch of lawn a short walk from Gungnamji Pond in Buyeo hides the site of a Baekje temple whose name has been lost. Excavations in 1935–1936 revealed, for the first time, the classic Baekje "one pagoda, one hall" layout, with the middle gate, wooden pagoda, main hall and lecture hall lined up from south to north. Baekje Buddha statues and a seven-branched sword were found beneath the pagoda site.

The first look at a Baekje temple plan

The temple is thought to date from the mid-6th century, when Baekje's capital was at Sabi, today's Buyeo. It was first investigated in 1935, during the Japanese colonial period, and the dig showed the middle gate, pagoda, main hall and lecture hall standing in a single line. That made it the first site to reveal how Baekje temples were laid out. Further building foundations flank the main hall and the lecture hall; the two beside the lecture hall are thought to have been a bell pavilion and a sutra repository.

New excavations followed in 2005–2007 and 2011. In 2022, foundation stones and a pile of roof tiles turned up about 25 m south of the centre of the pagoda site, finally fixing the position of the middle gate, which until then had only been guessed at. The site was designated a Historic Site in 1963.

What came out of the ground

• Buddhist statues: A seated stone Buddha and a standing gilt-bronze bodhisattva were found under the centre of the wooden pagoda. Both are designated national heritage and are key works for the study of Baekje sculpture.
• Seven-branched sword: A blade with three branches on each side of the central edge. A similar Baekje seven-branched sword survives in Japan, and the pair are often cited as evidence of contact between Baekje and the Japanese islands.
• Tile foundations: The platforms of the main hall and pagoda were built from stacked roof tiles rather than stone, while the middle gate and south corridor stood on stone foundations.
• Ornaments: Around 1,150 jade beads, gilt-bronze bells, bricks decorated with lotus and vine patterns and gold rings were recovered around the main hall and the pagoda.

What the excavations revealed

The first dig was led by the Japanese scholar Ishida Mosaku, who tried to interpret the temple in terms of ancient Japanese temples. Colonial-era research of this kind was later criticised for serving to justify Japanese rule, so the excavations of the 2000s were also a chance for Korean archaeologists to re-examine the temple's true size and layout for themselves.

They turned up plenty of new detail. The platform of the middle gate is estimated to have been about 14 m wide from east to west, and the south corridor, on a narrower platform, ran about 10 m to the east. At the corners of the gate, L-shaped base stones carried corner posts and capstones in a framed construction. The western parts of the gate and corridor had been badly damaged by a north–south road that Baekje people built across the site after the temple was abandoned, a reminder that the city of Sabi kept changing around its temples. Fragments of a gilt-bronze crown were also found south of the lecture hall.

Tripto tips

• What it looks like today: No buildings remain. The lawn is marked with the outlines of the foundations and information boards, and the best way to enjoy the site is to use the plan on the boards to pick out where the pagoda and the halls once stood.
• Time needed: 20–30 minutes is plenty.
• Combine it with: Gungnamji Pond is only about 550 m away, which makes the two an easy pair in lotus season, and Jeongnimsa Temple Site and Busosanseong Fortress are also in central Buyeo.
• In summer: Apart from a few pine trees, there is hardly any shade.