Situated 30 km southwest of the town of Hwasun-up. It was constructed by the great Buddhist monk, Toson-guksa, during the Unified Shilla Period(A.D. 676-935). Eighteen pagodas and 80 statues of Buddha in and around the temple are all that remain of the 1,000 Buddhas and 1,000 pagodas that once belonged to this temple.

According to the traditional theory of geomancy, the Korean Peninsula was thought of as being unbalanced and in danger of capsizing because there were fewer mountains in Honam, the southwestern part of the peninsula, than in Yongnam, the southeastern part of the peninsula.

To prevent this disaster, thousands of statues of Buddha and thousands of pagodas are believed to have been erected at temples in the southwestern part of the peninsula.

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