A former Seoul banquet house that became a temple, and the hill it sits on

On the upper slopes of Seongbuk-dong, behind a plain gate on a residential street, is Gilsangsa (길상사), a Buddhist temple that spent its first life as Daewongak, one of Seoul's best-known yojeong, or private banquet houses. Its owner, Kim Young-han, gave the property to the monk Beopjeong, and it opened as a temple in 1997. The pavilions still stand where they did. Nobody drinks in them now.

What the old building still shows

The layout gives the history away. Small wooden pavilions sit apart from one another up the hillside, each built so a party could eat without seeing the next one. Today they are meditation rooms and monks' quarters, and they keep the same distance from each other. Signs ask visitors to stay out of the halls marked for practice, and most people do.

Near the main hall stands a white standing figure of Gwaneum, the bodhisattva of compassion, made by the Catholic sculptor Choi Jong-tae. Its long, gentle lines look a lot like a Madonna. The resemblance was deliberate, a quiet nod between two faiths set in stone.

How to visit

Entry is free, and the grounds open to walk-in visitors from early morning until early evening. From Hansung University station on Line 4, a short bus or taxi ride takes you up the hill. The walk takes about twenty minutes and climbs the whole way. Weekday mornings are the quietest, before tour groups arrive.

Keep your voice low, take off your shoes where the step asks you to, and don't photograph anyone at prayer. Beopjeong wrote about owning less, and the temple is laid out in that spirit. The benches are simple and there are few of them.

말없이 머물다 가는 것이 이곳의 예의입니다. (Staying a while in silence is the courtesy here.)

Tea on the way down

Lower on the same slope is Suyeon Sanbang (수연산방), the 1930s hanok of the novelist Lee Tae-jun, which now works as a tea house. It takes walk-ins, serves jujube and quince teas, and has low tables looking onto a small garden. Stop there after the temple, when the hill is behind you and the afternoon light has moved onto the floorboards.