Munsusa Temple Master Pungdam Stupa and Stele

The Munsusa Temple Master Pungdam Stupa and Stele stand on a ridge about 500 metres west of the temple's present precinct. The stupa has an octagonal plan and is arranged in orderly fashion from the base to the finial. At the centre of the base sits a square ground stone, beneath which a stone box was buried inside a circular sarira chamber (a repository for Buddhist relics). Restoration work in May 2003 confirmed that the sarira had been enshrined inside the stone box in a porcelain bowl. The lower base stone is decorated with arch-shaped niches and lotus designs; the middle base stone bears a low band ornamented with an oval pattern; and the upper base stone is lavishly decorated with a 16-petalled lotus design. The body stone is spherical and has its own circular sarira chamber on top, which had been looted. The roof stone (the stone that covers the top of a stone pagoda or lantern like a roof) has been carefully finished at the eaves and ridge to recall the roof of a timber building. The finial, a single circular member, is finished with a wheel-shaped ornament and a jewel-shaped final placed above the dew-basin base. The stele itself consists of a base carved with lotus designs, on which sits an inscribed body bearing writing on its front and back, topped by a capstone (a stone carved with dragons that crowns a stele) decorated with a circular jewel amid cloud patterns. In 1665, when Master Pungdam passed away at Geumgangsan Mountain, five sarira relics reportedly emerged, and his disciples divided them for enshrinement among several temples. The Munsusa Temple Master Pungdam Stupa and Stele are an important record showing that, in the case of eminent monks of the late Joseon period, sarira relics were divided and a matching stupa and stele were erected together at several temples.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gimpo, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산