The Chosun Ilbo reports that a Seoul court is auctioning off Dobong-sa Temple in Dobong-dong. The temple is said to have been founded in the Goryeo era, and was reportedly the place where King Hyeonjong, the 8th king of the Goryeo period, looked after state affairs following the fall of the capital Kaesong to Kitan invaders. The temple was restored following a fire in 1961, and possesses a black iron Buddha that has been designated Regional Tangible Cultural Property No. 151 by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
The temple was put up for auction by its owners, two individuals with some 700 million in bonds who wanted to exercise their fixed-collateral rights (I have no idea what that means). Anyway, the court appraises the temple at 2.43 billion won. The auction information site GG Auction warned, however, that it wouldn’t be easy for everyday folk like me and you to make bids for the place, since it is, after all, a temple, and located within Bukhansan National Park.
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3 Comments
Actually, the people with the bonds aren’t necessarily the outright owners of the property. They’re most likely financers from whom the temple borrowed money, with the temple as collateral. Seeing as they’re excercising their fixed-collateral rights, the temple has probably defaulted on the loan, giving the lenders the right to force a sale in order to recover the money they’ve lent (with any remainder going to the actual owners of the temple.)
At any rate, it’s a nice-looking temple. I sure hope the new owners don’t bulldoze it and throw up more featureless apartment blocks. (I know… probably protected by law or something, but you never know.)
Thanks for that explanation—wasn’t sure exactly what was going on.
Oh, and the piece hinted that the property would most likely be sold to someone with a direct interest in the temple, most likely a Buddhist group or someone connected with the National Park in which it’s located. So no need to worry about the apartment blocks.
It certainly has a beautiful location…
If interested, here’s a page i’ve been working on to try
to clarify the confusion generated by that National Park
being named “Bukhansan” [North-of-Han Mountains], as some
Koreans (even some tourist-map-makers!) are calling one
of the mountains within that sub-range by that name…:
http://www.san-shin.net/Bukhansan.html