Five-story Stone Pagoda of Bosalsa Temple, Cheongju

Bosalsa Temple is the oldest temple in the vicinity of Cheongju, founded by the monk Uisin in 567, the 28th year of King Jinheung of Silla. This pagoda, standing before the Geungnakbojeon Hall of Bosalsa Temple, consists of a five-storey pagoda body raised on a single-tier platform and topped with a finial. The platform is built up of three stepped support stones, each reduced in size from the one below. The upper surface of the topmost support stone is carved with an eight-petalled lotus design facing downward, recalling the style of stone pagodas of the late Unified Silla or Goryeo periods. On the body section, pillar shapes are carved at each corner of the first-storey body stone, and between them are carved squares and circles containing Sanskrit letters (a Buddhist script). The roof stones are thick, and the four corners show no upward curve at all. At the top, the noban (base of the finial) has been omitted, but the bokbal (an inverted-bowl-shaped ornament), the boryun (wheel-shaped ornament) and the boju (bud-shaped ornament) remain, forming the finial. With its distinctively treated platform and its shallow body stones and simplified roof stones, this is, overall, a simplified, modest and unassuming pagoda. The date of its erection can be established precisely from an inscription reading 'Ganghui gyemi' carved on one face of the second-storey body stone, showing that it was erected in 1703, the 29th year of King Sukjong of Joseon.

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Where it is

Region

Cheongju, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산