The ‘Gongju Magoksa Five-story Stone Pagoda’, a relic from the late Goryeo period and the only one in Korea with a ‘tower upon a tower’ format, has become a national treasure.
The National Heritage Administration announced on the 9th, “The Five-story Stone Pagoda of Magoksa Temple in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province has been designated as a national treasure.” It has been 41 years since it was designated as a treasure in 1984. Magoksa Temple is one of the temples registered in the UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Mountain Temples, Mountain Monasteries of Korea’ and is also the headquarters of the 6th Diocese of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.
Magoksa Five-story Stone Pagoda is famous for its unique style of pagodas built on top of pagodas. It is a 1.8m long gilt-bronze treasure pagoda mounted on the top of a five-story stone pagoda. The gilt-bronze treasure pagoda is called ‘pungma-dong (風磨銅)’, which means that it shines even more when worn by the wind. It reproduces the Lama-style pagoda style that was popular in China’s Yuan Dynasty.
The National Heritage Administration explained, “This style is the only stone pagoda in Korea, and it is a representative cultural heritage that shows the international exchange of Buddhist culture at the time,” adding, “The production technique is elaborate, and the technical and artistic perfection is also excellent.”
The academic and artistic value of the Magoksa Five-story Stone Pagoda is also considered a reason for its designation as a national treasure. The bottom stone of the stone pagoda is engraved with the ‘Haemok-shaped eyesang (蟹目形 眼象)’, which refers to a curved shape like a crab’s eye. This is the first case discovered among existing stone pagodas in Korea. In addition, the double-layered stone pagoda stylobate is also of great value as it is a Baekje style that was popular during the Goryeo Dynasty.
There are no exact records of when this stone pagoda was built. However, it is presumed to have been built around the 14th century, considering that it shows the Baekje stone pagoda style that was prevalent in the Chungcheong and Honam regions in the late Goryeo Dynasty, and that the decoration on the head of the four-pointed Buddha carved on the second-story pagoda body appears only on Buddhist statues of the late Goryeo Dynasty.
Reporter Lee Ji-yoon [email protected]
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