Every scenic spot and historical relics of national significance in our country is imbued with warm care and leading exploits of peerless leaders.
Kwangbop temple which is located at the foot of Mt. Taesong in Pyongyang, the city with long history and culture, constitutes one of the important historical and cultural relics handing down the imperishable exploits of President
The respected Comrade
"A valuable legacy created by our ancestors through their struggle and creative activities, historical sites and relics are an asset of the nation that should be handed down from one generation to the next."
Cultural inheritance reflects soul, resourcefulness and talents of ancestors, thus play an important role in safeguarding and adding shine to the history and tradition of a nation. Only when jewelry under the ground is dug out and shown to the public, its value can be estimated and so is cultural inheritance of a nation.
Value of a nation's cultural inheritance can be recognized only when it is cherished and protected.
The President possessing far-sightedness and profound knowledge conducted the restless and energetic struggle to find out numerous historical sites which could have been lost in the hard days of the past, restored them thus boasting our nation's wisdom and achievements.
The President valued every historical relic attributable to the talents and hard work of Korean ancestors as national treasure that nothing can ever replace and devoted his everything to find out, restore and preserve them. Kwangbop temple in Mt. Taesong is one of them.
The temple which was built in 392 during the reign of King Kwanggaetho, when Buddhism began to creep into our country, was one of the nine old Buddhist temples in Pyongyang area. But it was ruined to ash during the Korean war when the US imperialists bombed Pyongyang.
The President who was grieved by this directed deep concern to the restoration of Kwangbop temple from the first moment he gave guidance for discovering historical relics of Mt. Taesong after the war.
The President had a talk with historians and said that there were many historical relics and remains of Koguryo age in Mt. Taesong. He continued to say that necessary remains should be dug out and restored to the original state and it would be a good idea to restore Kwangbop temple and the President gave relevant officials precious teachings again to restore the temple and on August 31 he viewed formation draft of the temple and gave detailed instructions for its restoration.
Under the proposition and deep concern of the President the construction for restoration finished within a year and the temple was reborn with several blocks of buildings and a stone tower as the old Buddhist temple.
On February 12th Juche 80(1991), the President visited the completed temple in regardless of thick snow and cold weather.
The President looked for a while at colorful red-and-blue patterns, gorgeous gabled roof and sophisticatedly crafted pagods of the temple and expressed great satisfaction. He said that having built a temple in Mt. Teasong was worthwhile and inspected carefully.
The President looked around the main inner building of the temple and said that the building was in a good shape and size and that the pattern of red-and-blue was also well done. He continued to say that the characters of "Tae Ung Jon" were also well written and that because the main building was built excellently, Buddha, so-called the forefather of Buddhism would be pleased when he visited this place. Then he explained that the main buildings of nearly all big temples in our country are named "Tae Ung Jon" and it is because big Buddha stays in the main building.
After that, he said that although only one Buddha exists, the figure is a little bit different from country to country and depending on the period and gave an analysis about this reason. He then said people are supposed to put money or the other stuff to express good intention when they hold ceremonies in front of Buddha. The President continued that we should organize the visit to the temple for foreigners and Buddhists would be very pleased when they are able to make an offering in the temple.
The President also had a look at historic monument of Kwangbop temple which had been in the original place and the monument to newly-designed clay images of ten kings in Heaven and the monument to remodeling of red-and-blue pattern which had been dug out from underground when restoring the temple. The monuments had lots of characters carved on them and the President taught that the characters would tell us the history of the temple and the names of people who had donated money and property for its building and restoration. The officials were greatly amazed by outstanding foresightedness and wisdom of the President.
He praised highly 5-storeyed stone tower built in the field of the main building. Looking at the flagpole prop(prop of the flagpole in the temple), he talked in an interesting and popular vein about procedures of Buddhist ceremony of holding Buddhist flags and pictures on flagpole prop when they celebrated Buddhist holidays or held important ceremonies.
As the President loved country and nation more than anyone else, he could have rich knowledge on history and customs of our nation and could clearly see through the significance of cultural inheritance handed down by ancestors which play a vital role in maintaining national qualities, achieving unity of the nation and country's reunification.
The President inspected the temple to every corner for quite a long time and said to the officials that the temple is not only one of the outstanding architectures reflecting talents of our ancestors but also precious inheritance reflecting long culture and tradition of our country. Then he instructed earnestly to the officials that they should take a good care of the temple before leaving.
Indeed, under the wise leadership and deep concern of the President who proposed the restoration of the temple and personally inspected after completion in spite of being so busy, it is shining all across the world as a national pride which exists to prove history of thousands of years.
