Five-story Stone Pagoda at Gaesimsa Temple Site, Yecheon

The Five-story Stone Pagoda at Gaesimsa Temple Site, Yecheon, is a Goryeo-period pagoda erected in 1011, the second year of King Hyeonjong of Goryeo. It bears a 190-character inscription recording the specific timing and process of its construction, as well as the conditions of contemporary society, giving it high scholarly value; because its date of construction is so firmly established, it also serves as a benchmark for dating other pagodas. The pagoda consists of a two-tiered base, a five-storey body, and a finial. According to the inscription, construction began in 1010: stone-cutting started on the first day of the second month, and from the third day of the third month the six ox-carts of the Gwanggunsa (a military office), together with 1,000 oxen and 10,000 monks and laypeople, joined forces to raise the pagoda, under the supervision of some fifty lay Buddhist associations and craftsmen. It was completed on the eighth day of the fourth month of the following year, 1011. The base consists of an upper and a lower tier, each built in the timber-frame style. On the lower tier, three niche motifs are arranged on each face, each carved with one of the Twelve Zodiac Guardian deities; on the panel stones of the upper tier, two of the Eight Legions, guardian deities of Buddhism, are carved on each face. Together with the placement of the Vajra Warriors on the first storey of the body, this arrangement of iconography displays an originality rarely matched in other stone pagodas, and the costumes and attributes of the figures are also unusual, giving the work high artistic accomplishment. The body and roof stones form five storeys, each storey diminishing in height as it rises, creating a stable overall composition. Every body stone has corner pilasters carved at its edges, and each roof stone has four tiers of eave supports on its underside, with a drip groove cut along the edge of the eaves. Of the finial, only the base plate — carved from a single stone — and the inverted-bowl ornament survive; the four faces of the base-plate stone are carved with niche motifs to add further ornamentation. The Five-story Stone Pagoda at Gaesimsa Temple Site, Yecheon, is a pagoda whose inscription makes clear the purpose, process and date of its construction, and whose relief carvings — running from the Twelve Zodiac Guardians on the lower base up through the Eight Legions and the Vajra Warriors on the first storey of the body — faithfully reflect Buddhist doctrine. It stands as a representative Goryeo-period pagoda outstanding in its decorative and iconographic richness, and possesses exceptional historical, scholarly and artistic value.

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Where it is

Region

Yecheon, Gyeongbuk

Designation

National Treasure · 국보