East and West Three-story Stone Pagodas from Galhangsa Temple Site, Gimcheon

Two pagodas that stood east and west at the Galhangsa Temple Site (Obong-dong, Nam-myeon, Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang). When they were in danger of being taken to Japan under Japanese colonial rule, they were moved to Gyeongbokgung Palace in 1916; they now stand at the National Museum of Korea. Each is of the usual form, three storeys on a two-tier base, and the two are identical in size and structure. Pillars are carved at the corners of the base and at the middle of each face — two middle pillars, in fact, on each. In the body, where each body stone and each roof stone is a single block, pillars are carved at the corners of the body stones, and the underside of each roof stone has five steps. The base of the east pagoda is inscribed to say that it was raised in 758, the seventeenth year of King Gyeongdeok of Unified Silla, by the monk Eonjeok and his two sisters, so its date is known exactly; that the inscription is written in Idu, the old system of writing Korean with Chinese characters, makes it all the more notable. Both are well preserved, missing only their finials. They are not large, but the proportions of their parts are in harmony, and the double middle pillars on both tiers of the base show well the pagoda style of the time.

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Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보