A Study on the direction for Yangju Hoeamsa Temple site inscription as a World Heritage Site

As a result of more than a dozen excavations from the late 1990s to the present, the Yangju Hoeamsa Temple site has revealed that it is a representative zen temple site built with the support of the royal family from the late Goryeo to the early Joseon Dynasty. Since 2016, the Cultural Heritage Administration and Yangju City have been promoting research on the inscription of ‘Yangju Hoeamsa Temple Site’ as a World Heritage Site, and in January 2022, it was added to the World Heritage Tentative List. In order to be inscribed on the World Heritage List, it must meet the inscription criteria required by UNESCO, and must be recognized for its outstanding universal value combined with authenticity and integrity. In this process, it is also essential to establish a plan and system for the complete conservation and management of the property. The site of Hoeamsa Temple consists of nine serial heritages, including the site of the main building of the central ministry and the monuments of the high priests related to Hoeamsa. These elements are evidence that clearly shows the 200 years of transmission and development of the zen buddhism of Goryeo that led to the Joseon Dynasty, and are examples of concretely proving the spatial organization system of Seonjong temples, and can be considered to have outstanding universal value. In this article, regarding the direction to take for the inscription of the Hoeamsa Temple site as a World Heritage Site, the feasibility of component and zoning, the appropriateness of the inscription criteria, whether authenticity and integrity are met, the possibility of comparative studies of domestic and foreign heritage sites, conservation management plans, and other considerations matters were reviewed and opinions were presented. In the future, it is expected that the value of the Hoeamsa Temple site in Yangju will be in-depth comparatively studied in various aspects such as archaeology, architecture, and Buddhism, and the authorities concerned will actively support it so that the Hoeamsa Temple site can be inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.