Cheonbyeon-ri Stone Figure Statue

These are two jangseung, village guardian posts, standing inside a protective shelter at the entrance to the village, carved in the likeness of a grandfather and a grandmother. Villagers call them "stone monuments" rather than jangseung, and refer to this street as "Stone Monument Street." On the grandfather figure, the face takes up half of the entire stone. It is depicted wearing a wonyugwan, a type of official's hat, with deep-set eyes, a broad nose, thick lips and an inverted-triangular beard, and it holds a hol, the tablet that officials carried in their hands when attending an audience with the king. The grandmother figure has a round face with the head appearing to rise upward; the eyes are sunken, and the nose and mouth are worn away, leaving only traces. These highly caricatured stone figures were made in 1838, the fourth year of King Heonjong of Joseon, by Hong Gi-seop, the magistrate of Damyang. They take the form of jangseung erected at the entrance to the village to serve as its guardian deities; it is said that they were set up in accordance with a feng shui belief that, because the shape of Damyang's land resembles a boat, a boatman was needed.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Damyang, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료