North Stupa of Yeongoksa Temple, Gurye

A pagoda holds the relics of the Buddha; a stupa holds those of a monk of great attainment. It is built like a pagoda: a base, a body that holds the relics, a finial above. This one stands on a square ground slab halfway up the hill north of the precinct at Yeongoksa Temple, octagonal throughout. Yeongoksa was known until early Goryeo as a place where monks practised Seon, which may be why the east stupa and the stupa of Buddhist Monk Soyo stand here too. The north stupa appears to have been modelled on the east one, the most beautiful of them: size and form are almost identical, and only the detailing differs. The base is in three parts. The lower is in two tiers, cloud below and a double sixteen-petalled lotus above. The upper is also two tiers, lotus and a stone railing one above the other, and its upper tier is ringed with medallions holding the kalavinka, the bird of paradise that lives in the Buddhist pure land, in relief. The body stone carries incense burners and the four guardian kings on its faces. The roof stone is cut with rafters and tile channels, and like the east stupa shows the end tiles at the edge. The finial — four phoenixes with wings spread above a lotus stone — survives complete. Nothing inscribed on it says which monk it commemorates, so it is known only as the north stupa. Where the east stupa is late Unified Silla, this one appears to date from early Goryeo. It is one of the finest octagonal stupas there is.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gurye, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

National Treasure · 국보