Gyeongjong Placenta Chamber, Chungju

A placenta chamber (taesil) is the place set up to enshrine the placenta of a prince or princess born to the royal family; this one enshrined the placenta of King Gyeongjong of Joseon. Normally the placenta was kept simply inside a placenta jar, but for a crown prince or crown grandson due to inherit the throne, a separate stone chamber was built to hold it. This placenta chamber consists of a round stone chamber set on a low octagonal base stone and topped with an octagonal roof stone; when Gyeongjong ascended the throne, a placenta-chamber stele was erected beside it. In the second year of King Yeongjo (1726), on the king's orders, an octagonal stone balustrade was built around the chamber and a stele was erected, sixteen guards were assigned, and rites were held every three years. It was first set up here in the fourteenth year of King Sukjong (1688), after Lady Jang, Huibin, gave birth to a prince; during the Japanese colonial period it was moved elsewhere on the grounds that it was difficult to manage, and in 1976 it was returned to its original site and restored. The placenta jar that had been kept inside the stone chamber was moved to Changgyeonggung Palace during the Japanese colonial period, and only the stonework and the placenta-chamber stele remain here in their original place.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Chungju, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산