Sanbangsan

This guide to Sanbangsan on Jeju centers on Sanbanggulsa, the grotto shrine partway up the mountain where a monk named Hye-il is said to have lived roughly a thousand years ago, tending a dripping spring and a Buddha statue until his death around age eighty-nine. Local tradition folds his solitary vigil into an older story of a heartbroken goddess turned to stone in the same rock. Travelers still drink the spring water today, cup by cup, praying for their families' health.