Mudeungniipseok

A seondol is an elongated natural stone, sometimes partly carved, erected upright as an object of worship; it embodies ancestral spirits and guardian deities of tombs, marking boundaries while also expressing a wish for abundant harvests. The Mudeungniipseok standing stone is one such seondol, standing at the entrance to the village together with a dangsan tree (a sacred village guardian tree) to help protect the community. It is a squared pillar shaped from a natural stone and planted in the ground; excluding the 60–90 cm buried underground, it stands 2 m tall. On one face is carved in large characters 'Buram (Buddha Rock), Namu Amitabul Gwanseeum Bosal' (an invocation of Amitabha Buddha and the Bodhisattva of Compassion), together with an inscription indicating the year 1924, suggesting that the carving was added some time after the stone was first erected. Whenever misfortune befell the village, a sacred rope was tied around the stone and rites were held before it, and it was said that anyone who touched or moved it carelessly would be struck by lightning, showing how sacred the stone itself was considered. In addition to the general functions of a seondol, its shape, resembling a male phallus, seems to have linked it to primitive beliefs such as phallic worship, making it an object of devotion for those wishing to have children. It is not known by whom or when the stone was first erected, but it illustrates well a form of folk belief in which the seondol tradition and Buddhism merged into a single village guardian deity.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Wanju, Jeonbuk

Designation

Provincial Folklore Heritage · 시도민속문화유산