Stone Monument of Yeongok-ri

[Traveler]
Didn’t you think that this particular stone monument stands out from all the others? If you did, it was probably because it is much older than the others. It has been worn away by hundreds of years, but the decorations on the monument clearly display the excellent skills of the stone carver. The nine dragons with magic pearls in their mouths carved on the capstone are vividly rendered to exhibit a dynamic movement, as if they might fly into the air at any moment. The turtle pedestal is also elaborately carved down to the minutest details.

What makes this monument so special is, more than anything else, its body. The monument has been given the nickname of “White Stele” because, remarkably, no inscriptions were ever engraved on its surfaces. No one knows whether it bore no inscription from the start or whether inscriptions were somehow removed.

The blank surfaces of the monument tend to incite viewers to think about its background. What made the builders of the monument decorate it so elaborately and then decide to inscribe nothing upon it? Was it some unrequited love, or the remorse of a child who had failed to fulfill its filial duty to its parents? Try to create your own story about this extraordinary memorial stone.