Yongdamsa Temple Seven-story Stone Pagoda

Yongdamsa Temple is said to have been founded during the reign of King Seong of Baekje, but given the legend associated with State Preceptor Doseon, a monk of the late Unified Silla period, and the relics found at the site, it appears actually to have been founded in the late Unified Silla period. According to legend, before the temple was built, an imugi — a legendary serpent said to fail in becoming a dragon — emerged from the nearby Yongdamcheon Stream and tormented the people, but after State Preceptor Doseon founded this temple it ceased its misdeeds. The temple itself disappeared under the early Joseon policy of promoting Confucianism and suppressing Buddhism, and today only this pagoda survives, together with a standing stone Buddha statue (a treasure) and a stone lantern. The pagoda has a seven-story body set on a one-tier platform; it looks unstable, being too long and slender, with roof stones thicker than the body stones beneath them. The platform is simply formed from a single stone. The body stones shrink abruptly from the second storey onward. The roof stones have supports on their undersides numbering six tiers for the first to third storeys, five tiers for the fourth, four tiers for the fifth, and three tiers for the sixth and seventh, decreasing in number towards the top; the slope of the upper surface is gentle, and the four corners are only faintly upturned. Overall, with its crude and unstable appearance, it is presumed to be a pagoda of the Goryeo period. The fifth-storey body stone is supported by two flat stones standing upright on either side, and because of this unstable feature the pagoda leans to one side, a sight that troubles those who see it.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Namwon, Jeonbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산