Three-story Stone Pagoda of Gimnyongsa Temple, Mungyeong

The Three-story Stone Pagoda of Gimnyongsa Temple stands on a stone platform of natural rocks to the upper north-east of Eungjinjeon Hall within the grounds of Gimnyongsa Temple. It was built in 1709, together with a standing stone Buddha (designated as a Gyeongsangbuk-do cultural heritage material), as a bibo-sa pagoda — a pagoda erected to supplement the geomantic virtue of a site according to pungsu, or geomancy. Bibo-sa pagodas were built mainly and intensively during the Unified Silla and Goryeo periods, and there are not many examples from the late Joseon period, such as this one at Gimnyongsa, where a pagoda and a Buddha image were created together at the same time for such geomantic supplementation. The pagoda stands 2.85 cm in total height and consists of a single-tier base, a three-story body, and a finial. On the south face of the first-story body stone — the pagoda's most distinctive feature — a square frame has been carved out and a Buddha image engraved within it. From the second story upward, the reduction in the width of the body stones is slight, while the reduction in the roof stones is very pronounced, so the pagoda does not show a consistent rate of tapering. Overall, the body of the pagoda is narrow in proportion to the base, giving it a slender appearance. Among the records relating to Gimnyongsa Temple, the Gimnyongsa-saji (a historical record of the temple) confirms that the three-story stone pagoda and a stone Buddha were made in 1709. Although the Three-story Stone Pagoda of Gimnyongsa Temple has little stylistic value of its own, it offers good material for the study of bibo temples, since it provides an absolute chronological benchmark at a time when research on late Joseon stone pagodas is almost non-existent.

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Where it is

Region

Mungyeong, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료