Yeoju Silleuksa Temple Three-story Stone Pagoda

This is a three-storey stone pagoda, square in plan, set on a single-tier platform. The platform was carved from a single stone, with corner pillars and a central pillar carved in relief on each side. The coping stone is likewise a single piece, bearing a reversed-lotus design of sixteen double petals in all — three on each side and one at each corner. At its centre, a two-tiered rectangular base, one tier low and one high, supports the body of the pagoda. The body stones and roof stones (okgaeseok, the stone that caps a pagoda or stone lantern like a roof) were each carved from a single block. Corner pillars are carved in relief on the body stone of every storey, and the first-storey body stone was made about three times taller than the second. The body stone of the third storey is now missing, though all three roof stones survive. The eaves are short and steeply sloped, giving the pagoda a heavy, somewhat ungainly appearance. On the underside, the first and second storeys have three-tiered rectangular supports and the third has two tiers, while on top each roof stone bears a two-tiered rectangular support for the body stone above. The finial is entirely missing. This pagoda is mentioned in the Silleuksa Dongdaetap Suribi (Repair Stele of the East Terrace Pagoda of Silleuksa Temple), a record which shows that the area containing the brick pagoda and this three-storey stone pagoda was the site where the funeral of the monk Naong was held. It is presumed that a budo (stupa) was built to enshrine the sari (relics) recovered at that time, and that this pagoda was erected on the site of the cremation. Rather than following the traditional layout of a temple compound, it is a late Goryeo-period stone pagoda that served both as a memorial tower and as a bibotap — a pagoda built to compensate for deficiencies in the local geomantic landscape — intended to correct the topography associated with the Yeogang River.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeoju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료