mireuksa

Mireuk Temple was established in 602 by King Mu of the Kingdom of Baekje. Legend says that King Mu and his queen saw a vision of the Maitreya Buddha at a pond and subsequently had the pond drained for the construction of this temple. It was then dedicated and named after the Maitreya Buddha.

The reconstructed plan of the temple is rather unique; it does not exist in China, Japan, or in other parts of the Korean Peninsula. The two stone pagodas flank the larger wooden one in the center and corridors separate it from the rest of the complex. One of the arguments for such tall pagoda structures in early East Asian History is that it was to legitimize the power of the ruling class. This can be seen in major pagoda construction during the Tang Dynasty, Silla Kingdom, and early Yamato Kingdom of Japan. The wooden pagoda is said to have been built by a craftsmen named Abiji. 

The Western Pagoda survived into modern times and is the oldest and largest stone pagoda to survive from the Baekje Kingdom. The Eastern Pagoda was recently reconstructed after extensive studies of the Western Pagoda. The Western one is now undergoing thorough excavations and will be reassembled sometime in the future. The stone pagoda showed how Baekje craftsmen adapted their knowledge of woodworking to stone. Except for the simplification of the bracketing system, most of the construction techniques mimic wooden ones.