Buan County’s official heritage guide says the monk Hyeguduta founded Soraesa in 633, during the reign of King Mu of Baekje. Tradition holds that there were once two temples, Daesoraesa and Sosoraesa; the former disappeared and the latter became today’s Naesosa.
The unverified claim that Daesoraesa burned during the Imjin War has been omitted. Naesosa preserves the intertwined memory of the vanished and surviving temples.