Seokguram
| Korean spelling | |
|---|---|
| Korean alphabet : | 석굴암 |
| Hanja : | 石窟 庵 |
| Revised Romanization : | Seokguram |
| McCune-Reischauer : | Sŏkkuram |
The Seokguram grotto is an attached outdoor complex of the Buddhist Bulguksa temple near the Korean city of Gyeongju , the former capital of the Silla kingdom. It is located on the top of Mount Tohamsan about 745 m above sea level and overlooks the East Korean Sea .
history
The construction of the artificial grotto began at the height of the Silla culture in 751 and was completed in 774.
During the neo-Confucian Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) Buddhism lost its importance and the sanctuary was forgotten. Trees and bushes overgrown the entrance, parts of the vault collapsed.
The grotto was not rediscovered until 1909 and under Japanese rule (1910–1945) a partially improper restoration began.
In the years 1961–1966, the Korean government under Park Chung-hee carried out a comprehensive restoration. To regulate the climate and to protect against the stream of visitors, the cave entrance was closed with a pane of glass and a wooden building was built in front as the entrance area.
In 1962, the Seokguram to the South Korean was designated National Treasure No. 24 declared and 1995 located along the 2 km downhill Bulguksa Temple by UNESCO under the title cave temple Seokguram and Bulguksa Temple in the World Heritage List was added.
architecture
The artificial grotto consists of precisely hewn granite blocks and is divided into three chambers. The sequence of the rooms follows a well thought-out, metaphysical concept. A rectangular antechamber and a narrow corridor lead to an inner round main chamber with a dome. The diameter of the round building is between 6.58 m and 6.84 m.
The rectangular antechamber and the narrow corridor symbolize the earthly. They serve to protect the inner sanctuary and are intended to attract the believers. Guardian spirits, gatekeepers and world keepers are shown here. These beings are still part of the transitory, earthly world. They are subject to the law of active action ( karma ) and are tied to the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
The round inner chamber symbolizes the heavenly, on its walls arhats and bodhisattvas are depicted. These beings are already redeemed and no longer chained to the cycle of rebirth. The center of the sanctuary forms the seated under an artificial sky vault on a lotus throne Buddha . The Buddha statue is 3.45 m high and shows Siddhartha Gautama in the lotus position , his left hand is on his lap, his right hand is on the right knee, the fingers are pointing downwards. With this hand position ( Bhumisparsa Mudra - literally touching the earth) the earth is invoked as a witness for previous merits and the steadfastness of the Buddha is underlined.
The special thing about the "grotto" is that the Buddha statue originally stood free and should be surrounded by a protective structure. In order to avoid that the statue would be disturbed by a falsework during the construction of the protective structure, the dome was vaulted using a unique process. With the curvature of the dome, the stones threatened to fall inward. For this reason, stones were inserted into the individual layers with a counterweight to prevent the neighboring stones from falling inward. The higher the dome was built, the more counterweight was necessary. The counterweight stones are hewn on the head in such a way that they are designed like a nail head and thus can hold back the neighboring stones in the layer. A keystone secures the vault in the center. The vault was sealed with a thick layer of clay and poured in so that it looks like a grotto built into the mountain.
Web links
- official homepage Bulguksa + Seokguram (Korean)
- Description of the cave (English)
- Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
Coordinates: 35 ° 47 '42 " N , 129 ° 20' 57" E