Wonhyo Sadong Stupa

A budo is a stupa built to symbolize a monk's grave, enshrining his remains or sari (relics). This stupa stands in a wood about 150 metres to the left of Daeungjeon Hall at Wonhyosa Temple, and is one of the few relics preserved at the temple. A square base stone supports a platform (gidan) formed of three tiers, on which the body of the stupa (tapsin) rests; every part is octagonal except for the base stone and part of the platform. On the upper surface of the lowest tier of the platform a band of lotus carving runs around the edge, and male and female lions are placed alternately at the four corners of its sides. The middle tier of the platform is carved with lotus flowers on all four sides, and at each of its four corners a lion and a dragon are carved, arranged in male-and-female pairs. The upper tier of the platform has lotus flowers carved around its sides, but the carving is so shallow that it seems more a matter of form than substance. The body stone of the stupa is taller than it is wide and has a slight entasis, a gentle swelling curve. The unusually large roof stone, covered edge to edge with carving, appears all the heavier for it. Its upper surface clearly shows roof-tile ridges and eight corner lines, while its underside is carved with double rafters to represent overlapping eaves. At the eight corners, instead of flower carvings, animals such as dragons, squirrels, doves and turtles are carved as decoration — a distinctive style that appears in the late Goryeo period. Although the stupa follows the octagonal form of Unified Silla, part of its base shows a square shape, and the animal carvings on the roof stone depart from convention, suggesting that it is a work of the late Goryeo period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Buk-gu, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산