Bulguksa Temples Pagoda to Undergo Restoration
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
The top parts of the Dabo Pagoda in Bulguksa Temple, Gyeongju, will be taken down for a nearly year-long restoration on Wednesday.
The National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage will oversee the dismantling of the first two levels of the three-story Dabo Pagoda, which is designated as National Treasure No. 20.
The pagoda's upper levels have been showing cracks and decay due to environmental factors and pollution. In order to prevent further damage, the pagoda's parts are to be restored. The restoration work is expected to be finished Oct. 30, 2009.
In the book ``A Field Guide to History: Gyeongju,'' the Dabo Pagoda is described as a ``square tile-roofed structure with a powerful chunyeo (the raised section at the end of an eave) that extends out like spread wings, over a heavy square-shaped base with stairs placed on all four sides.''
The Dabo pagoda stands at 10.4 meters tall, and is considered a beautiful but complicated structure. It has a square base or gidanbu, while the body or tapsinbu is an octagon and the upper level or sangnyunbu is a smooth circle.
The restoration will be done on the sangnyunbu, which features a main pillar, and the lower parts of the tapsinbu.
The Dabo pagoda is located in the Bulguksa Temple, one of the most famous tourist attractions in Gyeongju and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built from the early unified Silla Kingdom, the pagoda is known as one of the most artistically constructed Korean stone pagodas in the world.
The pagoda was dismantled in 1925 during the Japanese occupation. It was rebuilt during the same year. In 1972, the pagoda also underwent restoration.