Bronze Incense Burner with Silver-inlaid Design of Pyochungsa Temple

A hyangwan is an offering vessel for burning incense, used in ceremonies or placed on the altar. The name was given specifically to this form: a bowl-shaped body on a flaring, trumpet-like foot with a disc base. The bronze hyangwan at Pyochungsa Temple in Miryang is 27.5 cm high and 26.1 cm across the mouth, decorated by the silver-inlay technique — pattern cut into the surface and silver wire hammered into it — in work that is both precise and refined. Its form — a body with a broad flange at the mouth, standing on a trumpet foot — is the typical Goryeo type. The join of flange and body is rounded and a low ridge runs round the edge of the foot, which steadies it; height and width are almost equal, which gives it balance. On top of the broad flange, six circles at even intervals hold Sanskrit characters in silver inlay, with clouds between them. The body carries Sanskrit characters in four circles of thick and thin lines. The foot is decorated with clouds and dragons, and the dragons, drawn fluently in thick and thin lines, show Goryeo silver inlay at its best. On the inner face of the flange an inscription of fifty-seven characters in silver dates it to 1177. It is the oldest hyangwan surviving in Korea and an important fixed point for the study of Goryeo examples. The inscription also shows that it belonged not to Pyochungsa but to Yongheungsa Temple in Changnyeong; when and how it came to Pyochungsa is not known.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Miryang, Gyeongnam

Designation

National Treasure · 국보