Bronze Bell Excavated from Uncheon-dong, Cheongju

This bronze bell was excavated in Uncheon-dong, Cheongju, together with a gilt-bronze Buddha statue and a Goryeo-period bronze gong (geumgo). A medium-sized bell measuring 78 cm in total length, 64 cm in body height and 47.4 cm in mouth diameter, its distinguishing feature is that the upper and lower bands are left plain, simply marked off without any pattern. The wide square frames are decorated with three flying apsaras, scrolling arabesque patterns, and a design symbolising the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha), and enclose nine raised, bud-shaped bosses. Two flying apsaras are carved on the front and back of the bell body. Two circular striking panels, decorated with lotus flowers and carved with a vine-scroll pattern, are placed on the body. The sound tube is now partly missing, but the hanging loop survives intact, in the form of a single dragon with its mouth open and its neck bent to bite down on the flat top plate of the bell. Judging from the two flying apsaras at front and back and the pattern of the striking panels, the bell is presumed to date from the late Unified Silla period, around the middle of the ninth century.

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Where it is

Region

Cheongju, Chungbuk

Designation

Treasure · 보물