The popular belief is that Buddhism was brought from China to Korea in the first year of the rule by King Chimryu in 384 AD, and that a temple was built in Hansan region in the following year, although it has not been proven yet. Afterwards, several temples such as Daetong-sa were told to be built, but the detailed aspects are not known. Baekje Dynasty began toe build temples actively after it transfer its capital to Sabi, and after that more than 25 temples and temple sites are found within Buyo region. Recently we can secure many valuable materials for the ancient temples of Baekje Dynasty through many excavations for major temple sites. Based on these studies, the changes in the layouts of Buddhist temples can be explained.
The basic plan of the temples in Baeckje Dynasty is composed of one pagoda and one main building layout which is putting the main gate and assembly hall on a straight line while surrounding them with corridor to form an outer boundary. Overall plan of the temples are the same except some variables on buildings belong to the assembly hall. The variables form which has a certain pattern with the time passes except for few unique cases. First, in Gunsuri temple site, the small buildings belonging to the assembly hall are attached to the corridor. However, since then the buildings are separated as they grow in size in Nungsanri and Wanghung temple site. Also to the left and right of the pagoda and the main building, there appear the eastㆍwest buildings which are connected to the corridor. The buildings belonging to the assembly hall disappears as time goes and the eastㆍwest buildings are extended North to the assembly hall and there appears a northern-buddhist nunnery site to the North of the assembly hall. These variables are integrated in Miruk temple site, and all three of them are shown in it. There are cases which contain neither the eastㆍwest buildings nor the buildings which are belonging to the assembly hall like Gumgang temple site or a case without the assembly hall as in Busosan temple site, because of the location and other reasons. However, during the period of building those temple sites exceed that of temple ruins with the building belong to the assembly hall according to the remains that were excavated with them. The framing purpose of these belonging buildings are suspected to be the place where the temple’s bell was kept, and the eastㆍwest buildings are used to be the buddhist nunnery site. According to this plan, living area and meditating area of these temples such as monk’s house and assembly hall and entering area such as corridor and the inner gate surround the service(place for pray and the rituals) area such as the main building and the pagoda.
Along with the temple plan, the lower part of the main pillar of the wooden pagoda shows many changes through time; in particular, the position of the central base stone changed from underground to aboveground. A storage for sari(sacred stone) was placed in the central base stone in Gunsuri temple site and Nungsanri temple site, but the later in Wanghung temple site, it was separated from the central base stone and buried beneath the stone in a special container(shaped just like the central base stone), which is a transition period of the central base stone being positioned to aboveground. As these examples show, the central base stone, the sari container, and other offerings were buried separately underground in the sixth century AD, and in the late seventh century the central base stone is located aboveground and the sari container and other offerings are placed in the central base stone simultaneously, which is proven in Miruk temple site recently. This can be compared with the cases of the East Asia, especially Silla Dynasty and Japan in the same time frame.
It is difficult to figure out the whole picture of temples during Baekje Dynasty, since not many temples from that period have been excavated and studied about the basic outline of the temple plan would stay the same. Also, the structure of the eastㆍwest buildings is a distinctive character of Baekje temple plan. Moreover, Baekje temples demonstrate changes and developments showing distinctive features of East Asian sari burying culture, and again we can confirms the fact that Baekje has played an important role in the development of Buddhism in the East Asian countries.