Placenta Chamber in Sandeok-ri, Cheongju

This is a placenta chamber of the Joseon royal family, located at Taebong, in Sandeok-ri, Munui-myeon, Sangdang-gu, Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. The mountain here came to be called Taebong ('Placenta Peak') because this placenta chamber stands upon it. The inscription on the chamber's stele, which records the identity of its owner and the date of construction, has been deciphered as stating that it is the placenta chamber of an 'Aji-ssi' (a royal infant) erected in the muja year, the sixteenth year of the Wanli era. On this basis it is presumed to be the placenta chamber of Prince Inseong, born in 1588 (the twenty-first year of King Seonjo) to King Seonjo and Lady Jeongbin of the Min clan. At Sandeok-ri, the burial mound and the placenta-chamber stele survive today. The placenta vessel (taeham) buried within the mound is a cylindrical stone container fitted with a hemispherical capstone, made of limestone. The chest and capstone were made separately: a placenta jar was placed inside the chest, and the mound was then raised over it. The chest measures 118 cm in diameter and 76 cm in height; its outer surface is dressed smooth, and inside it has an inner chamber 64 cm in diameter and 58 cm deep. The capstone is hemispherical, 119 cm in diameter and 63 cm high, with four projecting corners made to align with the four corners of the chest. The stele body and its capital were carved from the same stone, but the inscription is now badly worn. The placenta chamber and its stele were looted around 1928 and their contents lost, but they were restored to their original form in 1994 following an excavation by the museum of Cheongju University.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Cheongju, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물