Wonhyoam Hermitage

Wonhyoam Hermitage was founded in 646 CE by Wonhyo, one of the most celebrated monks in Korean Buddhist history. Roughly a dozen hermitages across the country share the name Wonhyoam, but this one is regarded as the foremost among them.

Wonhyo is said to have practiced here himself, and also to have taught the Avatamsaka Sutra (Hwaeom) to a thousand disciples who traveled all the way from Tang China to study under him. According to legend, all thousand attained enlightenment — and the mountain's name, Cheonseongsan (literally "Mountain of a Thousand Sages"), comes directly from that story. A cushion-shaped rock at Sabong Peak near the summit, and the meadow around it known as Hwaeombeol, are said to be where Wonhyo delivered these teachings.

This is a much older story than the one that made the mountain nationally famous in the early 2000s — the environmental lawsuit over the KTX tunnel project. The same mountain has drawn attention in very different ways across very different eras.