Ch.6 Buddhist Temples, Sages and Nature Veneration in these Mountains ―Koreanization‖ of Buddhism, planting relics of Sakyamuni the Buddha within them in order to consecrate their host mountains for Buddhism; these are called his Jeokmyeol-bogung shrine-temples. In the eventful generation that followed, Uisang-josa followed Yeongi‘s example in establishing his new monasteries or refurbishing older ones on sites that were on both sides of the Baekdu-daegan, in order to promote reconciliation between the regions that were formally warring kingdoms but we now at peace and seeking to become one nation. In several sites still found at the most famous mountains, trees said to have been planted by Buddhist sages such as Jajang and Uisang, or said to have mystically sprouted from master‘s walking-staffs that they left implanted in the ground, are still highly venerated by visiting worshipers. The first conception of the Baekdu-daegan as a continuous ―spine‖ that unites the nation and spreads a mystical kind of energy throughout it is credited to Buddhist monk Doseon-guksa (826-898). He is one of the most fascinating but yet underappreciated characters of the evolution of Korea‘s mountain-culture. He was a great genius enlightened in the two most important schools of Korean Buddhism, and also the one who formally imported Chinese Daoist Feng-shui [Geomancy] theories and adapted them to Korea's differing conditions and his own concerns for the welfare of the nation. In doing so he became the founder of what we call Pungsu-jiri-seol [Wind-water Wisdomtheory]. This systematic understanding of geography and auspicious topographic configurations has remained prominent in Korean thinking about the definition, characteristics and spiritual character of their nation for more than a thousand years, and is still widely
employed today with renewed interest. Legend says that a Jiri-san Sanshin imparted the key points of it to him, with a wider view of promoting prosperity through the principle "national harmony with nature". According to the Pungsu-jiri-seol national architectural designs he left as his legacy that were adopted by the subsequent Goryeo Dynasty (10th-14th C.), crucial forests were maintained and overcutting of trees around civilized areas was prevented. One of his directives was to plant pine trees thickly on the mountains around the Goryeo capital city in order to complement the natural geomantic harmony of the area by increasing the lushness of forests; he also advised that other mountains that might become ecologically degraded could be rehabilitated with plantings of fresh pine forests. It is recorded that an imperial Chinese envoy reported back to his government in 1123 that, starkly unlike the case of Chinese cities, the mountains surrounding all Goryeo‘s civilized areas were still densely forested with large trees and shady foliage, having been fairly-well protected from unsustainable exploitation by intentional government policies based on Doseon‘s theories. In the millennium that has followed Master Doseon, Korean Buddhist monks have continued to practice in their major temples dotted throughout these mountains, and maintained a close association with the ecology surrounding them. They preferred the atmosphere of the mountainside-forests to the cities, for study and meditation in harmony with beneficent nature. When there were prominent old trees on the site where a temple was to be constructed, the monastic's arranged their structures around it rather than chopping it
Hwaeom-sa Temple near the Baekdu-daegan.
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