A Comparative Study on the Characteristics between Paekche and Silla Style Stone Pagodas

백제석탑(百濟石塔)과 신라석탑(新羅石塔)의 비교론적(比較論的) 고찰(考察)

The wooden pagoda was first appeared in about late 4th century in Korea. And between the late 6th century and the eary 7th centry, the multistoried wooden pagoda was replaced with the stone pagodas, in order to improve their stability and durability. In Three-kingdom and Unificated-Silla period, there are two types of stone stupas in Korea. The one is Paekche(百濟)style, and the other is Silla(新羅) style stone pagoda. These two styles are basically different in each part like podium, roof stone, body stone, structure and the others. Two types of stupas are distributed in two regions which devided into the East(Silla territory) and West(Paekche territory) in the Korean peninsular. The origin of the Korean stone pagoda can be traced to the Paekche dynasty and Silla dynasty. The former were the result of the careful study of their skillful wooden pagodas, where the latter were actualy originated from copying their sundried brick pagodas with stone. Two important pagodas of the primitive stage are the stone pagoda of Miruksa(彌勒寺) temple in Iksan and Bunhwangsa(芬皇寺) temple in Kyungju. These two pagodas are compared with each other in the style of their construction. Silla style have sharp straight lines and short distance between roof stone and eaves. They give us strong as well as intelletural feeling. Howerever, Paekche style has curved lines and dull angles of cutting area of stone, they give us soft feeling.