Stone Pagoda, Beautiful Mercy of Buddha

A pair of pagodas stands outside the Archaeology Hall. These are a reproduction of the pagodas from Bulguk Temple, one of the most famous tourist destinations in Gyeongju. The stone pagodas in front of us represent the Buddhist pagodas of the Silla Kingdom.

The purpose of the pagodas differs from that of western bell towers. During the Middle Ages, Europeans built bell towers as lookouts or to be closer to heaven. Buddhist pagodas, however, were made to enshrine the sariras of Buddha, so India was the first country to establish these types of pagodas. The pagodas in India resemble big upside-down bowls, whilst the towers of East Asia look like stacked cubes. The material used to construct the pagodas differs by region: mud brick in China, wood in Japan and stone in Korea.

Wooden pagodas were initially popular in Silla, but because of construction difficulties and their susceptibility to fire damage, they were superseded by stone pagodas. From the late 7th century onwards, stone pagodas were built with the same design and construction methods as the original wooden pagodas.