Temple Bell held at Baekjangam Hermitage

This temple bell is enshrined at Baekjangam Hermitage of Silsangsa Temple and was cast in 1743. It stands 64 cm high with a diameter of 42 cm, not a particularly large bell, and its overall state of preservation is very good. At the top of the bell, the crown plate rises in a rounded dome, on which a single dragon is carved, its four feet planted firmly on the crown plate, its body curved in an S-shape, its head raised, and its tail coiled powerfully around the sound tube as it gazes straight ahead. The sound tube itself is plain, with no decoration on its surface. The body of the bell swells out at the crown plate and runs almost straight from about the middle downward, giving it a compact yet well-balanced form. This bell shape, its outline resembling a shell casing cut in half, is one of the characteristic forms of late-Joseon temple bells and resembles the Temple Bell of Okcheonsa Temple in Goseong and the Temple Bell of Seonjeoksa Temple, now kept at Hyangnimsa Temple. The join between the crown plate and the body is marked off by a thin incised line, below which a band of circular medallions containing Sanskrit characters is set at intervals around the upper band. Below the upper band, at a slight distance, nearly square panels (19 cm wide by 18.8 cm high) containing raised nipple bosses and figures of bodhisattvas are placed alternately. The border of each nipple panel is elegantly carved with a fine scrolling lotus-and-arabesque design, and inside, a lotus design is incised within a circle, with a plump nipple boss placed at its centre. Between the nipple panels, four standing bodhisattva figures were cast, each turned to the left and standing on a lotus pedestal; they are somewhat large for the scale of the bell, and their line work is rather formal and coarse. Below the nipple panels runs a single plump raised ridge line, and the lower edge of the bell carries a simple inscription band with no further decoration. The inscription reads: "The mid-sized bell weighs fifty geun; the officer in charge was Gyeong-in, the administrator was Si-u; the third month of the eighth year of the Qianlong era, the year gyehae; Hamyang, Angugam Hermitage," showing that this bell was originally cast for Angugam Hermitage in Hamyang and that it weighs fifty geun.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Namwon, Jeonbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산