Five-story Stone Pagoda at Bongeopsa Temple Site, Anseong

This pagoda stands on the old site of Bongeopsa Temple, now surrounded by farmland, and consists of a five-storey body raised on a single-tier foundation. The foundation was completed by setting the storeys on one thick slab formed as a single stone; perhaps because of the thickness of this stone, the whole gives an impression of heaviness. Of the body above the foundation, only the first-storey body stone is made up of four separate stones, the rest each being a single stone. Narrow pillar shapes are carved at the four corners of each storey. In the centre of the south face of the first-storey body stone a small niche (a chamber for enshrining a Buddha image) has been made, but it remains no more than a carved outline, without an actual image. The roof stones are thin, the eaves almost horizontal, with only a slight upward curve at the corners, and the finial has been entirely lost. The pagoda's overall tapering is not well proportioned, and the carving of each part remains formulaic. Although it inherits Silla style, giving an excellent combination of stones, features such as the formulaic carving on the foundation show the diminished, heavy character peculiar to Goryeo stone pagodas.

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Where it is

Region

Anseong, Gyeonggi

Designation

Treasure · 보물