Jogyesa Temple

This guide to Jogyesa Temple in Seoul follows Han Yong-un, a Buddhist monk-poet who was one of only two monks among the thirty-three signers of Korea's 1919 Declaration of Independence, and was arrested and beaten for it. It traces the site back through five centuries when Buddhism was barely tolerated in Seoul, to the unprecedented temple that rose here in 1910, the same year Japan annexed Korea. Take a moment in the courtyard beside the five-hundred-year-old white pine before stepping into the dark wooden hall.