Muryangsa Temple Kim Si-seup Stupa

This stupa enshrines the relics of Maewoldang Kim Si-seup (1435–1493). Kim Si-seup was one of the Saengyuksin, the "Six Living Ministers" who remained loyal to the deposed king; on hearing, at the age of twenty-one, of Prince Suyang's (later King Sejo's) seizure of the throne, he entered the Buddhist priesthood, and spent his final years at Muryangsa Temple, where he died. The stupa rises from a three-tiered pedestal, above which sit the body of the stupa and its crowning ornament, every part octagonal in cross-section. The pedestal's upper and lower stones are decorated with lotus flowers, while the middle stone is carved with two dragons, wreathed in cloud, contending for a magic jewel. The body of the stupa is undecorated, while the roof stone, carved with a lotus-shaped cover, has its eight corners, each adorned with a floral ornament, raised high. At the summit, a bokbal (an inverted-bowl-shaped ornament) and a jewel finial survive as the crowning decoration. A Joseon-period stupa, it is unusually fine and elaborate in its carving for a work of its time. During the Japanese colonial period, a nearby tree was toppled by a storm and fell against the stupa; beneath it a single relic was then found, which is now kept at the Buyeo National Museum.

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Where it is

Region

Buyeo, Chungnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산