---
node: spot_gyeongju_bulguksa
type: spot
slug: bulguksa
destination: dest_gyeongju
title: "Bulguksa"
lead: "Bulguksa is the head temple of the Jogye order's Gyeongju district, built in its present form in 751 and listed by UNESCO with the Seokguram grotto above it. Its two stone pagodas and its stone terraces are original eighth-century work."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_gyeongju_bulguksa.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Birojeon,_Bulguksa_01.jpg"
image_author: "Bernard Gagnon"
image_license: "CC0"
---

## Overview

The wooden halls were burned in the invasion of 1593 and rebuilt from the 1960s, but the platform they stand on — the double stairways, the bridge-stairs with their names about crossing from this world to the Buddha land — is Silla stonework and has never moved. Dabotap and Seokgatap, the two pagodas in the main court, are deliberately unlike: one ornate, one plain, standing for two ways of seeing the same teaching. The oldest surviving woodblock print in the world was found inside Seokgatap in 1966.

## Highlights

Look at the stone before the buildings — the platform, the stairs and the two pagodas are what survived and what the temple is famous for. Seokguram is up the mountain behind and is a separate ticket and a separate trip. Arrive at opening; this is the busiest single site in Gyeongju.