Bronze Bulgu (set) excavated from Jeonsongnimsa Temple

Among the bronze Buddhist ritual implements (bulgu) said to have been excavated from the site of Songnimsa Temple are nine pieces in total: one bronze bottle, five round-bottomed bronze bowls, one bronze ewer, one bronze incense burner (hyangwan), and one bronze gyeongja (a small percussion gong used in Buddhist rites). Although heavily covered with verdigris overall, these objects retain their complete shapes and are presumed to have been made over the period from Unified Silla to Goryeo. On the underside of the rim of the bronze incense burner, however, an inscription is carved recording that it was made and donated to Songnimsa Temple by the Choi family in 1342, the third year of King Chunghye of Goryeo. Three sites named Songnimsa Temple are known to date: one in Chilgok, Gyeongbuk; one at Geumgangsan Mountain in Goseong, Gangwon; and one in Yongseong-myeon, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk. The Songnimsa Temple at Goseong was rebuilt in the late 19th century, and no artefacts predating that reconstruction have been confirmed there. By contrast, the Songnimsa Temple in Chilgok preserves a five-storey brick pagoda of the Unified Silla period (Treasure No. 189) together with Silla- and Goryeo-period sarira reliquaries found inside it (held by the National Daegu Museum, Treasure No. 325), showing that Buddhist activity flourished there from Unified Silla through Goryeo. Silla-period artefacts have also been excavated at the Songnimsa Temple in Yongseong-myeon, Gyeongsan. It therefore seems likely that these nine bronze artefacts, now in the Seoul Museum of History, are connected to either the Chilgok or the Gyeongsan Songnimsa Temple. Dating from Unified Silla to Goryeo, these objects are, despite their heavy verdigris, valuable material for the study of Buddhist metal crafts of the period because of their completeness. In particular, the bronze bottle, complete with its lid, is the first such example found in Korea, and the bronze ewer is likewise a rare survival.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산