Buseoksa Temple Master Wonyung Stele

This stele, housed in a stele pavilion built to one side of Buseoksa Temple, honours the Goryeo-period monk State Preceptor Wonyung, whose personal name was Gyeoreung. Gyeoreung entered the monkhood at the age of twelve and received the precepts monks must keep at Bokheungsa Temple, becoming a daedeok, a title for a monk of high virtue, at twenty-eight. In 1041, the seventh year of King Jeongjong of Goryeo, he entered Buseoksa Temple and inherited the dharma lineage of the Hwaeom Order, and he passed away at this temple in April 1053, the seventh year of King Munjong. The king bestowed on him the posthumous title "Wonyung." The stele has a structure in which a tortoise-shaped base is set on a foundation stone, the stele body erected on it, and a capstone placed on top. The tortoise base is not the original one, and the stele body, which had been broken and cracked, has been pieced back together. On the sides of the foundation stone are shallowly carved ansang, lotus-shaped decorative niches, each containing a flower design. The tortoise base is much worn, but its carving is excellent; its head has become dragon-like, yet it looks rather like a stone lion. Its back is covered with clear hexagonal patterns, and within each pattern the character 王 (king) can be faintly seen. The exact date the stele was erected is not known, but since Gyeoreung passed away in 1053, it is presumed to have been erected around that time. Because the stele body is damaged, the beginning and end of the inscription are difficult to make out, but the full text is recorded in the Joseon Geumseok Chongnam, a comprehensive compilation of Korean epigraphic inscriptions, making it possible to understand its content.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산