Doksang-ri Stone Lantern

This stone lantern stands inside a stele pavilion in Doksang-ri village, and is said to have been made by Munheongong O Dae-seung, who served as chief minister (sijung) in the Goryeo dynasty. The Sinjeung dongguk yeoji seungnam records that O Dae-seung, while staying in the Dongbok area below Mohusan Mountain, lit 48 flames in the stone lantern and prayed to heaven every night, after which his descendants prospered greatly; the same account is inscribed on a 'Record of the Stone Lantern' erected in front of the stele pavilion. A stone lantern typically centres on a fire chamber stone that holds the flame, with a three-tiered base below and a roof stone and finial above, but this lantern has none of that structure: instead, several hollows have been carved into the upper surface of a broad, lightly dressed rock. The records speak of 48 hollows, but in fact there are 54, and oil appears to have been poured into them to provide the flames. The number 48 relates to Amitabha Buddha in Buddhism: the supreme ideal associated with Amitabha is the forty-eight vows, meaning a land of ease free from the suffering of birth, old age, illness and death — that is, the Pure Land of Paradise. This suggests that the folk beliefs of the Goryeo period merged with Buddhism to produce a stone lantern of this unusual form.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Hwasun, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료