Gwaneumsa Temple (Changnyeong)

This description was machine-translated from the Korea Tourism Organization's Korean original.

Gwaneumsa in Changnyeong-gun offers a quiet atmosphere; the temple courtyard is laid with lawn, and the overall feel is charming and distinctive. Cultural heritage materials preserved at Gwaneumsa include the Docheon Three-story Stone Pagoda, a Maitreya Buddha stele, a stone lantern, and an Amitabha Buddha Assembly painting. The Changnyeong Docheon Three-story Stone Pagoda originally stood at the site of Bogwangsa inside Tapgol Village in Dojeon-ri; the temple was ruined during the Japanese invasions of Korea, and the pagoda is said to have been moved to Gwaneumsa here in 1928. No records of Bogwangsa survive, but by tradition it was a branch temple of Gwannyongsa. The pagoda is thought to date from the early Goryeo period in a style that continued Unified Silla forms. The Gwaneumsa stone lantern was discovered at the Bogwangsa site and is known to have been moved to Gwaneumsa in May 1928. Judging by its overall form, missing parts of a stone lantern made between the Unified Silla and Goryeo periods appear to have been remade in modern times. The Gwaneumsa Maitreya Buddha stele was found near Deokgok during construction of the Yeongsan–Bugok road in the Japanese colonial period and is presumed to have been brought when Gwaneumsa was rebuilt in 1928. Its whereabouts were later unknown until April 1968, when it was found buried underground on the grounds and enshrined in its present location. Its date of manufacture is unknown, but features such as simple folds of clothing and a nose and mouth rendered small relative to the face show characteristics of Goryeo-period rock-carved Buddhas. However, the head, expressed as excessively large and round relative to the face, is a unique form not found in Buddha statues of the same period.