Three-story Stone Pagoda at Sinboksa Temple Site, Gangneung

This pagoda remains at the old site of Sinboksa Temple. Sinboksa was founded during the Unified Silla period by the State Preceptor Beomil, and a legend is associated with its founding. According to the story, a young woman of Silla drank water from a well after seeing sunlight reflected in it, and soon afterwards conceived and bore a child. Her family abandoned the infant, but light was seen circling around him, and, finding this strange, they took him back and raised him, naming him Beom. After Beom left home to become a monk, he returned to his hometown and founded Sinboksa and Gulsansa Temple. Nothing is recorded of the temple's history after its founding. This pagoda has a two-tier base supporting a three-storey body, each part showing distinctive features. The upper surface of the base stone is bordered with a carving resembling lotus petals laid flat, and each of the four sides of the lower base is carved with three ansang, cusped, eye-shaped recessed panels. Each storey's body stone and roof stone are carved from a single block. The body of a pagoda is meant to house the Buddha's sarira or sutras, and the first-storey body stone has a carved niche shaped as if to hold such relics. Compared with the first storey, the second and third storeys suddenly shrink in size and are very thin. The roof stones are likewise thin, so the upward curve at the corners is barely perceptible, and the underside of each roof stone has three tiers of stepped supports. Remarkably, the finial at the very top survives almost intact; it is wide relative to the height of each part, giving the pagoda a sense of stability. In front of the pagoda stands the Stone Seated Bodhisattva at Sinboksa Temple Site, Gangneung (Treasure), shown kneeling on one knee with both hands raised as if in support. This arrangement resembles the Eight-sided Nine-storey Stone Pagoda at Woljeongsa Temple, Pyeongchang (National Treasure), also within Gangwon, and is thought to reflect a regional characteristic. Stone slabs are inserted as supporting blocks beneath each tier of the base and the body stones, a style frequently seen in the Goryeo period. Likewise, the carving of ansang on the lower base and the three-tiered supports beneath the roof stones closely follow the stone pagoda style of early Goryeo.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gangneung, Gangwon

Designation

Treasure · 보물