Stupa of Seongnamsa Temple, Ulju

This stupa stands on a broad platform on a hill to the northeast of Seongnamsa Temple, and has long been known as the stupa enshrining the sarira of State Preceptor Doui, who founded Seongnamsa Temple. Overall the stupa is octagonal in form, with the platform base and pagoda body placed on an octagonal ground stone. The lower stone of the platform base is octagonal and carved in relief with lions and clouds. The middle stone, shaped like a drum, is carved on its top, bottom, left and right with low-relief flower-shaped niche patterns facing inward, encircled by a floral band. The upper stone is carved with lotus petals to support the pagoda body. On the pagoda body, pillar shapes are lightly carved at the corners, and door-shaped carvings are placed on the front and back faces, with a lock carved only on the front. Standing figures of guardian deities are placed on either side of the door. The roof stone has short eaves, with the rafters and roof-tile ridges rendered in detail, and finial ornaments are stacked in sequence on top of the roof. Overall, because the members are taller in proportion to their width, the stupa looks slender, and since the base stone is narrow it does not convey a sense of stability. The cloud pattern on the lower base stone and the guardian-deity figures on the pagoda body are rendered in a rather formulaic way, and in particular the niche carvings on the middle base stone show signs of a later date, yet the stupa is a beautiful work whose every part is completely preserved. When it was dismantled and repaired in 1962, a cavity that had once held a reliquary was found in the middle base stone of the platform, but no reliquary objects remained.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Ulju, Ulsan

Designation

Treasure · 보물