earticle

영어

Traditional temples in Korea have been located in forest because of the development of zen since Silla-Dynasty, which made the temple the owner of the forest. The religious principles of Buddhism encourages the pro-environmental life style and the conservation of nature. Thus, the temples played an important role in the conservation of the forest where they located.Ths purpose of the research is to investigate the ecological status of the forest owned by a traditional temple. The study site was the Toham forest owned by Bulguk temple in Kyeong-ju. The important findings of the study are as follows :1) Pinus densiflora is distributed mainly in the site. The pine trees located very near the temple show different forest structure and age compared to those located distant from the temple.2) Specifically, the pine trees located near the temple have lower species diversity and higher appearance of exotic species due to the consistent artificial maintenance from the temple. The average age of the tree is estimated about 100 years old.3) The pine trees located distant from the temple maintain the natural status of pine forest, and the average age is estimated about 40 years old. 4)Besides Pinus densiflora, Quercus variabilis and Quercus serrata are expanding their growth now, which will be very competitive in the future.