Five-story Stone Pagoda

The Five-story Stone Pagoda held by Busan National University Museum is a Goryeo-period stone pagoda with relief carvings of the Four Heavenly Kings on its body. It originally stood at the site of Daegoksa Temple in Samjeong-ri, Cheongnyang-myeon, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, and was relocated and restored by Busan National University Museum in November 1966. Because the collapsed pagoda had to be salvaged and moved, the corners of some of its roof stones were damaged, and as the base and finial had been lost, the museum supplied replacements for these at the time of relocation. The pagoda stands 3.2 m tall, giving a somewhat tall, refined impression. On the body stone of the first storey, the Four Heavenly Kings are carved in relief so as to fill the surface almost entirely: Dhrtarastra on the east face, Virupaksa on the west face, Virudhaka on the south face, and Vaisravana on the north face. The carving is not especially fine, but the lines are soft and the individual character of each king is well expressed. The Four Heavenly Kings are the four guardian deities who protect Buddhist devotees; they are commonly enshrined on either side of a temple's Cheonwangmun gate, or carved onto the surface of Buddhist sculptures. A square reliquary hole remains in the body stone of the fourth storey, suggesting that a sarira deposit was once housed there. Pillar shapes are carved at the corners of the body stone at each storey. Compared with the height of the first-storey body, the second-storey body is reduced by about a third, while the third, fourth and fifth storeys are of nearly equal height. Each roof stone has three stepped tiers of support beneath it and a single block above to support the storey overhead; the eaves run horizontal but curve slightly upward at the four corners. With its single-tier support above the roof stone and three-tier support below, the pagoda shows the weakened, formalised style typical of Goryeo-period stone pagodas. Overall it appears narrow, with little reduction in width between storeys, giving an elongated impression, but its clean composition makes it a handsome work.

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Where it is

Region

Geumjeong-gu, Busan

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산