Bogwangjeon Hall of Daejeonsa Temple, Cheongsong

Daejeonsa Temple is said to have been founded in 672, the 12th year of King Munmu of Silla, by the great master Uisang. Bogwangjeon Hall's construction date was revealed by a ridge-beam inscription discovered during repairs in 1976, which records the date as 1672 (the imja year, the 11th year of the Kangxi reign, early in the fifth month) — the 13th year of King Hyeonjong of Joseon — showing that the hall, having burned down during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s, was rebuilt in that year. Bogwangjeon Hall of Daejeonsa Temple, Cheongsong, stands on a granite stylobate with granite plinths bearing slightly entasis-tapered round columns, forming a building three bays wide and three bays deep. The roof is a gable roof with double eaves — formed using subsidiary rafters (buyeon) — at the front only, the rest being single-eaved; its frame consists of two interior columns supporting five roof purlins, built in the multi-cluster bracket (dapo) style with two projecting bracket-arm tiers and three bracket blocks on both the outer and inner sides, the bracket-arm tips shaped like upturned lotus petals at the front and like ox-head profiles at the rear — features characteristic of Joseon wooden architecture from the mid-period onward. Bogwangjeon Hall of Daejeonsa Temple, Cheongsong, is a wooden building in the mid-Joseon dapo bracket style whose construction date is precisely documented, and it clearly displays the bracket-style characteristics of that period. Its interior dancheong (decorative colour painting) and murals are especially outstanding works of notable painterly quality, and because the original form from the time of construction is relatively well preserved, the hall is important material for the Buddhist art of the mid-Joseon period; as a state-designated heritage (treasure), it holds ample historical, artistic and academic value.

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Where it is

Region

Cheongsong, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Treasure · 보물