Sammaksa Temple Three-story Stone Pagoda

The name Sammaksa Temple is said to derive from the fact that, in the seventeenth year of King Munmu of Unified Silla (677), three monks — Wonhyo, Uisang and Yunpil — entered Gwanaksan Mountain, pitched tents there to practise religious cultivation, and later built a temple on the site. The three-story stone pagoda stands on a two-tiered foundation supporting a three-story body, and is a standard-type stone pagoda three metres high. The base stone is built up from several long rectangular stones. The lower foundation is formed of four slab stones topped with a capstone whose hipped-roof ridgelines project at all four corners. The upper foundation is likewise assembled from four slab stones and, as with the lower foundation, its face stones are left uncarved; its capstone is a single slab with clearly defined ridgelines at the four corners. The body stones and roof stones (the stones placed like a roof atop a stone pagoda or stone lantern) are each formed from a single piece of stone. Corner pilasters are carved in relief on each face of the body stones. The underside of each roof stone has three tiers of supports, and the slope of the water-drip surface is steep. The thick eaves run horizontally, with only a slight upward curve at the corners. A finial assembly restored in 1979 sits at the top. This stone pagoda is said to have been built in the nineteenth year of King Gojong of Goryeo (1232) to commemorate the monk Kim Yun-hu's victory over the Mongol invasion. However, since it stands on a hillside rather than at the centre of the temple grounds, and since traces of folk belief — including a stone shaped like female genitalia — have been found nearby, it is presumed to have been built for the purpose of geomantic supplementation.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Anyang, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산