Guksadan

Ground level, Haeinsa Temple
Gayasan National Park, Korea

Guksadan, a shrine to the mountain god, is located to the right of the stairs leading up to Haedalmun, the temple's main entrance gate (previous page). Additionally a tree shrine (another example), in which a tree is festooned with directional streamers and enclosed by gold-colored leaf-shaped votives, is placed just in front of the mountain god shrine.

In other temples, the mountain god shrine is placed towards the back inside the temple itself. Here, however, the idea is that the god protects the temple, so his shrine is put in front to guard the entrance.