A Study on the Current Planting Status and Maintenance Plans of Traditional Korean Temples

Abstract

Korean temple gardens have very high preservation value as the place reflecting ancestral wisdom in harmony with nature. Not only as a religious place but also as a beautiful landscape place, many people including foreigners are visiting traditional Korean temples. However, current many Korean temple gardens lost their original value and meaning because of the inappropriate planting in traditional places. In this study, for maintaining the representativeness of traditional Korean temple, we researched the current planting status of traditional Korean temple. After the research of 51 traditional Korean temples, a total of 207 species of plants was investigated, and among them 128 species (61.84%) were Korean native plants, 76 species (36.71%) were cultivar plants, 2 species (0.97%) were naturalized plants, and 1 species (0.48%) is introduced plant. Korean red pine (46 temples), sawleaf zelkova (38 temples), and ginkgo (36 temples) were the high rank species among 207 species. Korean rare plants including black-fruit hackberry and Korean fir form 5.3% of total species, and Korean endemic plants including Korean weigela and Korean paulownia form 3.4% of total species in traditional Korean temples. On the other hand, plants that have religious meaning such as lotus, musa, and guelder rose form slightly. There is a higher proportion of traditional Korean plants than religious meaning plants in traditional temple gardens, so that temple gardens are highlighted as historic places. Based on the planting status, maintenance plans were established reflecting characteristics of each spaces: entry space, the precincts of a shrine, and flower stairs. As a result, we suggest that selecting a suitable plant species with regard to the religious meaning of the plant symbolism for newly designing Korean temple gardens.