Yangju Hoiam Temple Site Passes UNESCO World Heritage ICOMOS Review...Targeting 2029 Registration
The Yangju Hoiam Temple Site is expected to pass the first hurdle of World Heritage registration. Yangju City has set 2029 as the final target date for registration.
The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the official advisory body in UNESCO's cultural heritage field, assessed that the Yangju Hoiam Temple Site has a high possibility of meeting World Heritage registration criteria (ii) and (iii), Yangju City announced.
The 'Preliminary Assessment' is an international review system newly introduced by UNESCO starting in 2021 that allows consultations with advisory bodies from the early stages of World Heritage registration application preparation to evaluate the integrity, authenticity, and outstanding universal value of the heritage site and increase the likelihood of successful registration application.
Yangju City submitted a preliminary assessment request for "Hoiam Temple Site: A Typical Archaeological Site of 14th Century East Asian Zen Buddhist Temples" to the UNESCO World Heritage Center in September 2025, and following more than a year of document review, recently received the assessment results from the International Council on Monuments and Sites.
Yangju City plans to reflect the recommendations from the preliminary assessment and work in cooperation with the Cultural Heritage Administration and Gyeonggi Province to proceed with subsequent procedures including the selection of World Heritage registration candidate sites. The final target date for registration is 2029.
The International Council on Monuments and Sites stated in its assessment results that 'it is judged that the Hoiam Temple Site has a high possibility of meeting World Heritage registration criteria (ii) and (iii).' The council also presented recommendations including expanding the heritage boundary to include a broader landscape environment and supplementing the description of registration criteria (ii) and (iii).
Registration criterion (ii) evaluates important cultural exchanges in the fields of architecture, technology, and art, while criterion (iii) evaluates unique evidence of existing or extinct cultural traditions or civilizations.