Cheongsong Ichon-ri Five-story Stone Pagoda

This is a stone pagoda with a five-story body raised on a two-tier platform. Of the platform, the lower tier is buried underground, so only part of the upper tier remains visible. The body stones of the pagoda shaft are quite tall at the first storey, then diminish sharply from the second storey. The roof stones, which look excessively thick, have steeply sloping eaves. At the top, a noban (a dish-shaped base for the finial) and a bokbal (an ornament shaped like an upturned bowl) survive as part of the finial. According to local tradition, around the 15th century, when the power and wealth of the Wonju Yi clan of this area were at their height, many beggars came seeking help and caused considerable trouble, so the family asked a great monk for a solution. The monk said that if a pagoda were built on the pass at Ichon-ri, visitors and beggars would stop coming; following his advice they built this pagoda, after which, indeed, visitors and beggars ceased to come — but the power and wealth of the Wonju Yi clan also collapsed entirely. The pagoda is said to have originally stood on a pass to the north-west of Ichon-ri, Jinbo-myeon, Cheongsong-gun, and to have been rebuilt as a five-storey pagoda when it was moved to (what was then) 64-1 Ichon-ri in 1942. However, a 1972 survey report describes it as a single-tier-platform five-storey pagoda 2.53 m high with a platform 1.51 m wide, noting that the body stones above the second storey had been lost and that only the roof stones remained, stacked up. In 2007, at the request of local residents citing reasons such as transport convenience, it was moved a second time, from 64-1 Ichon-ri to 784-137 Songsaeng-ri. It was then moved a third time, in 2013, to the front garden of the Cheongsong Folk Museum (784-143 Songsaeng-ri, Cheongsong-eup); but after that museum closed, for the preservation and management of the heritage it was moved a fourth time, to the inner courtyard of the Old Letters Exhibition Hall in the Juwangsan Tourist Complex.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Cheongsong, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료