Sariras enshrined again in
1,200-year-old Buddhist pagoda
2015-09-16 The Korea
Herald
Sacred sarira relics were placed back in an ancient Buddhist pagoda
at the Bulguk Temple in Gyeongju on Wednesday as ongoing repairs
are near completion.
Sariras are crystals that are sometimes found among the cremated
remains of Buddhist monks. They were put in a hole inside the main
structure of the Seokga Pagoda, along with their container and a
document on the history of repairing the pagoda after a brief
Buddhist ritual.
"Sariras are bright, transparent and incomparable to
any treasures. We put them in the Seokga Pagoda that carries the
dreams of the Silla Dynasty on Sept. 16, 2015. If enshrined today,
they will be exposed one or two thousand years later if things go
normally," a chief monk of the temple said in his speech during the
ritual.
The authorities took out a total of 46 sariras in 2013 while
disassembling the pagoda to repair cracks found in the foundation
stone. But only 28 of them were enshrined again there, with 18 to
be placed in a museum run by the temple.
The National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage in charge of
repairing the national treasure said it will complete reassembling
the three-story structure so it can regain its original status by
the end of the year.
The Seokga Pagoda is believed to have been completed in the mid-8th
century, about 200 years after the construction of the Buddhist
temple in 535 in Gyeongju, about 370 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The city was the millennium-old capital of the Silla Dynasty that
emerged from Korea's southeast and later unified much of the Korean
Peninsula. The Bulguk Temple has been inscribed on the UNESCO World
Heritage list.
It has undergone two previous rounds of repairs. The most recent
repairs were done in 1966, when it was partly damaged by robbers in
their unsuccessful attempt to steal the sarira container. In the
repair process, lots of cultural assets, including the
"Mugujeonggwang Great Dharani Sutra," known as the world's oldest
existing print done with wood blocks, were found in the compartment
inside the tower. (Yonhap)