Pogyodang Hall Temple Bell of Magoksa Temple, Gongju

This is a Joseon-period temple bell kept at the Pogyodang Hall of Magoksa Temple in Gongju. According to the Taehwasan Magoksa Temple Historical Record, Magoksa Temple was founded in 640, the ninth year of Queen Seondeok of Silla, by the Vinaya master Jajang, and was rebuilt in the mid-Goryeo period by the State Preceptor Bojo Jinul. The Pogyodang Hall bell of Magoksa Temple follows the typical form of bells dating back to Silla; it is very well preserved and its decorative patterns are rendered with great realism. At the top of the bell body is a dragon hook in the shape of a single dragon with an arched back lifting the bell, its tail coiled around the sound tube. The upper band of the bell body is decorated with a chrysanthemum design, and the lower band at the rim of the mouth with a lotus design. Four square raised bands are placed at the shoulder of the bell body, each bordered with a scrolling foliage design, within which are decorated raised bosses and nipple-shaped studs; the raised bosses take the form of five-petalled flowers with low, lotus-seed-like protrusions. Between the raised bands are figures, presumed to be Indra or Brahma, turned to the left, standing on a cloud pedestal with a round head halo and holding a lotus branch; these are rendered with flowing, elegant lines. A casting inscription at the lower part of the bell body records that it was made in the eighth month of the sinyu year of the sixth year of the Qianlong era, that is, in 1741, the seventeenth year of King Yeongjo of Joseon, and gives the names of the craftsmen who made it and of the donors. Although the Pogyodang Hall bell of Magoksa Temple was made relatively late, it faithfully carries on the stylistic tradition of Silla bells, and is an outstanding work whose form is almost perfectly preserved and whose decorative patterns are very finely rendered.

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Where it is

Region

Gongju, Chungnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산