Tuck away deep in the forest of Gayasan National Park is Haeinsa, one of the three most important Buddhist temples in South Korea and maybe the second most famous temple in this country after Bulguksa Temple in nearby Gyeongju. As I mentioned Haeinsa is located in the national park, the scenery especially along the path to the temple is very beautiful with small steams and many tiny waterfalls in the very bright green forest, a real reward after taking 1.30 hour bus from Daegu thru many uninspired villages.

The temple itself is quite big compared to other temple complexes. The most important structure in the temple is Janggyeon Panjeon the temple’s depositories for the Tripitaka Koreana woodblocks or Korean Buddhist bible. Janggyeon Panjeon is actually four plain storage buildings from 15th century keeping more than 80,000 woodblocks famously for its sophisticate design of conservative preserving all of the 13th century woodblocks without deteriorates. The masterly technique of this building is truly exceptional; however, for normal tourists it is really hard to appreciate these structures since there is no explanation for their uniqueness to differ them from other old buildings which is quite sad.

Since most people do not know the importance of the buildings or it’s just quite hard to appreciate them, the equally impressive Tripitaka woodblocks are the main focal point of Haeinsa. The woodblocks took 16 years to complete and now Haeinsa’s Tripitaka is considered the most complete set of Tripitaka woodblocks in the world and used as the main source of Buddhist study in all East Asia.

I really impressed Haeinsa by its unworldly sacredness and wonderful location which reminded me the same feeling toward forest temples in Thailand or Japan. While the famous Bulguksa is crowded with hordes of tourists like hell, Haeinsa is heaven, so if I have to recommend one temple to visit after Bulguksa, Haeinsa is my answer as the perfect place to heal you up from mainstream tourist industry.