Cheongryangsaji Seven-story Stone Pagoda, Gongju

Basic information

Designation

Treasure No.1285

Category

Sites & Pagodas

Era

고려시대

Designated year

1998

Location

공주시, 충청남도— 충청남도 공주시 동학사1로 448-150(반포면)

Coordinates

36.362637, 127.213915

The site of Cheongnyangsa Temple contains two stone pagodas, called brother-sister pagodas: a seven-tiered one and a five-tiered one. According to legend, a monk named Sangwon got a tiger out of trouble. The tiger brought a maid to the monk supposedly in return for the gesture. The monk applied himself to Buddhist enlightenment and treated the maid as if she were his own sister. Her father thought highly of the monk’s purity in mind and built the two pagodas. The seven-tiered pagoda stands on a single-tiered platform and has a thin, long shape. This one is unique, since its platform has columns on the four corners separated from the platform. The first tier of the body has a rectangular niche. As for the bottoms of the roof stones, the one for the first tier is two-tiered, and that for the seventh tier is single-tiered. Those for the second ~ fourth tiers were replenished later, and there is no way of knowing about their original state. The roof stone of the second tier shows a sharp slope. The second ~ top tiers have a rather unstable and unbalanced proportion. At the top of the pagoda, only the square bottom that used to support the stupa finial is left. This pagoda is presumed to have been made in the mid-Goryeo Period (918-1392) based on the fact that some details were omitted in the upper parts and that the minute sculpturing techniques are not uniform. The overall techniques used show that it follows the styles of those made during the Baekje Period, like the Stone Pagoda at Mireuksa Temple Site, Iksan (National Treasure No. 11) and Reliquaries from the Five-story Stone Pagoda in Wanggung-ri, Iksan (National Treasure No. 289).

Location