Second Floor of Botap Pagoda

[Traveler]
While the pagoda’s first floor is devoted to Buddhas in general, the second floor is made for the Buddha’s teachings. The hall is packed with the Buddhist scriptures. Just as the Bible is the basis for the teachings of Christianity, so are the Buddhist scriptures for the teachings of Buddhism. The Buddhist teachings have traditionally been regarded as one of the Three Treasures of Buddhism.

The green book cabinet at the center of the room contains a Korean translation of the Tripitaka Koreana, whose original edition, printed in 1236, is now a UNESCO World Heritage. The scriptures were carved on over 80,000 woodblocks, taking 16 years to complete. The carving techniques as well as the calligraphic scripts of the woodblocks have been widely praised for their artistic excellence. The original woodblocks are currently stored in Haein Temple in South Gyeongsang Province.

Was this vast collection of Buddhist scriptures put here to be read by visitors? Probably not! You can see that the circular book cabinet is designed to be turned. According to tradition, you will be regarded as having read all the scriptures in it if you spin it repeatedly, and the scripture reading will grant you a magical power that will protect you against evil and see your prayers fulfilled. They say that the object was invented in the past when ordinary people were not educated to read and write.

Let’s now go to the third floor. I’ll tell you a secret about this pagoda before we get there. The pagoda looks like a three-story building but, in fact, it is a five-story structure because there are two hidden floors between the stories. The hidden floors are designed to give a more stable structure to the pagoda by fitting the inner structure to its outer appearance. The secret floor between the 2nd and 3rd stories is open to the public as a museum specializing in pagodas of the world.