Wooden Sodae of Yongjusa Temple, Hwaseong

This large, pillar-like object is one of the ritual implements placed on the Buddhist altar. It is a container used to store sutras (gyeongmun, Buddhist scriptures), petitionary prayer texts (balwonmun) or somun — texts read before the Buddha or before the hall of the ten kings of the underworld, reporting the sins and merits of the deceased — once they had been read out during a ceremony; for this reason it is also called a sotong, or "somun tube." This type of container is known as a sodae, and is placed beside the Buddha image at the centre of the altar, together with inscribed memorial tablets (bulpae), to its left and right. The Wooden Sodae of Yongjusa Temple, Hwaseong is kept in the Hyohaeng Museum of Yongjusa Temple, the temple built as a memorial temple for Crown Prince Sado. Its rectangular base has legs set at the four corners, with a rectangular wooden board fitted on top. The body is three-dimensional in form, with both sides of the front set back slightly; the front is divided into three sections, each carved with Sanskrit-letter (beomja) patterns, with plum-blossom patterns carved in openwork above and below them. On the left and right sides behind the front, vine patterns are carved boldly and clearly; on the underside of the canopy at the head, a lotus pattern is painted in white, and petals are carved in openwork at the centre of the top surface. Given the overall stability of its structure and the refined yet dignified quality of its detailed patterns, the Wooden Sodae of Yongjusa Temple, Hwaseong is thought to have been made in 1790, the fourteenth year of King Jeongjo, when Yongjusa Temple was founded, to store a memorial text praying for the repose of Crown Prince Sado's soul.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Hwaseong, Gyeonggi

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료