Yakcheonsa Temple “약천사” (Jeju, Korea)

Yakcheonsa Temple “약천사” is a famous Buddhist Temple sprawled out over an area of 122,100 square meters (1,314,274 square feet) and is located in Jeju, Korea, a small Korean island south of mainland Korea. Even though the temple is fairly new, having been built in 1981 by Buddhist monk Hae-In “해인스님”, it has the distinction of having the largest Buddhist prayer hall and main temple in all of Asia measuring in at 3305 square meters (35,575 square feet) with a height of 30 meters (98.5 feet). It is also famous for housing, 80,000 Buddhas, or in this case miniature gold Buddha statues all located on the second floor encased in glass.

Buddhism is the original form of religion in Korea and is still the most popular form of religion by a slight margin over Christianity. What’s surprising is that there are more Agnostics over Buddists and Christians combined in Korea.

Whether you’re a Buddhist or not, anyone visiting Jeju, Korea should take the time to visit this temple, if only to experience the sheer size of this temple. Unlike some Buddhist temples, photography is welcome here and of course, non-Buddhists are welcome with open arms.