3. Three-story Stone Pagoda of Seonamsa Temple (East Pagoda and West Pagoda)

[Man]
In front of Daeungjeon Hall of Seonamsa Temple, two stone pagodas are located to the east and west. They are 4.7 meters tall and have a three-tier core stone and roof stone on top of a two-tier footstone.

[Woman]
The lower-level footstone of the Three-story Stone Pagoda at Seonamsa Temple was built by attaching the foundation stone or the floor stone to the footstone. Each side of the stone is carved with a corner pillar and one central pillar. The top side of the cover stone is tilted, and a round, angled three-layered support is placed in the middle.

[Man]
Each side of the upper-tier footstone is also carved with a corner pillar and one central pillar. The cover stone has slightly upturned protruding corners of the eaves, with molding on the bottom side, and its slightly inclined top has a three-layered, rounded, and angled strut in the middle, just like the cover stone of the footstone on the lower tier.

[Woman]
The core and roof stones of the body section are made with one stone each, and the core stone on each tier is carved with corner pillars, but there are no other pieces. The underside of the eaves of the roof stone is horizontal, and there are four layers of base supports below the underside. The top of raindrop side, which is the upper side, has a two-layered angled support. On the upper part, there is a small stone on the roadbed, but it is unclear whether it was originally part of the stone pagoda.

[Man]
Seoktap (stone pagoda) is an abbreviation of Seokjo Tabpa. It is common in Korea to use granite to build stone pagodas, but andesite and argillite are also sometimes used. It is estimated that stone pagodas were built in Korea around the 7th century during the late Three Kingdoms Period. From the late 4th century to the end of the 6th century, when Buddhism was introduced, wooden pagodas were built for about 200 years. It is estimated that stone pagodas were built with the knowhow gained from the construction of wooden pagodas over that long period of time.

[Woman]
Toward the end of the Three Kingdoms Period, stone pagodas were built in Baekje, and their styles were modeled after the wooden pagodas that were popular at the time. In the early 7th century, Baekje began to build pagodas imitating wooden pagodas using stone, marking the beginning of stone pagodas.

[Man]
Meanwhile, the stone pagodas of Silla began from imitating brick pagodas. The brick pagoda refers to a pagoda built with bricks made of roasted clay. As the bricks made by roasting clay are light and easy to handle, many brick pagodas were built in China. The oldest stone pagoda in Silla was the Bunhwangsa Stone Pagoda in Gyeongju, which was constructed to look like a pagoda made of bricks made by shaping andesite.

[Woman]
Most of the pagodas in the three kingdoms of Baekje, Silla, and Goguryeo were wooden pagodas in the early stages, but were later developed to display varying characteristics. After the unification by Silla, pagodas with a more refined and balanced shape were built.

[Man]
The Three-story Stone Pagoda of Seonamsa Temple perfectly conveys the typical Silla stone pagoda style. The number of pillars in the middle of the footstone was reduced to one, and the number of supports below the roof stone was also reduced to four, and it is thus estimated to have been built around the 9th century.

[Woman]
In August of 1986, the Three-story Stone Pagoda of Seonamsa Temple was dismantled and restored, and a reliquary, a celadon jar, a white porcelain jar, a crystal vessel of the Gilt-bronze stupa, and a sarira reliquary were excavated from the inside of the pagoda located to the east in its first story.