Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Baekje Kingdom's iconic incense burner gets its own museum hall
The Buyeo National Museum in South Chungcheong Province unveils a new three-story building devoted solely to the Great Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of Baekje, a state-designated National Treasure. Courtesy of Buyeo National Museum
By Park Han-sol
BUYEO, South Chungcheong Province — In 1993, at an old temple site in Buyeo, archaeologists uncovered an unexpected marvel during the construction of a parking lot: a gilt-bronze incense burner from the Baekje Kingdom (18 BC–660 AD), buried beneath more than a thousand years of accumulated soil.
Preserved in astonishingly pristine condition, the sixth-century relic startled excavators not only with its size — standing 62.3 centimeters tall — but also with the precision of its craftsmanship, enough for the state to designate it a National Treasure just three years later.
Three decades after its chance discovery, the iconic burner now glows in its own sanctuary at the Buyeo National Museum, where a three-story hall was built solely to house this masterpiece.
The Great Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of Baekje, believed to have been produced between the sixth and seventh centuries, is on display at the newly opening Baekje Great Incense Burner Hall of the Buyeo National Museum, Monday. Korea Times photo by Park Han-sol
Fashioned through sophisticated lost-wax casting and mercury amalgam gilding, the incense burner contains an entire microcosm shaped by Taoist and Buddhist ideals. Across its surface rise jagged mountain ridges and winding waterfalls; lotus blossoms emerge amid the terrain, while Chinese phoenixes, dragons, tigers and crocodiles roam among heavenly musicians and deities.
Twelve small apertures are drilled into the vessel, some allowing incense smoke to escape outward, others drawing air inward to sustain the flame.
Previously, this treasure greeted visitors alongside other artifacts in the Buyeo National Museum’s collection. Now, however, it commands a space of its own as the museum unveils the Baekje Great Incense Burner Hall — Korea’s first permanent architectural home dedicated to a single artifact — after three years of construction.
“This is a truly special space created for just one object: the Great Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of Baekje,” said Shin Young-ho, the museum’s director, during a press preview held a day before its official opening.
The Baekje Great Incense Burner Hall at the Buyeo National Museum is the first in Korea to give a single artifact its own permanent architectural home. Courtesy of Buyeo National Museum
Inside the hall, the incense burner is presented within a darkened chamber that invites a fully multisensory encounter.
The surrounding walls, finished in compacted earth, are embossed with reliefs of the mythical creatures and deities featured on the artifact’s surface. A faint fragrance — reinterpreting ancient aromatics through contemporary perfumery — lingers in the air. Echoing throughout the room is an original musical composition inspired by the five musicians perched atop the burner’s lid: the double-reed pipe, vertical flute, three-string lute, drum and zither.
Beyond this contemplative chamber, additional galleries offer more hands-on forms of engagement. High-resolution videos bring rarely seen details into close view, while elsewhere, visitors can smell incense once likely burned in the vessel, including agarwood and frankincense. Metal replicas are also available to touch.
Two gilt-bronze pensive, or "thinking," Bodhisattva statues from the sixth and seventh centuries are displayed within the National Museum of Korea's "Room of Quiet Contemplation" in Seoul in this 2021 file photo. Yonhap
The opening of the Baekje Great Incense Burner Hall aligns with a growing trend in Korean museums toward exhibitions that place just one or two signature artifacts in a dedicated space. Breaking decisively from conventional display strategies, these presentations are designed to allow visitors to encounter a single object in solitary contemplation.
This approach was popularized by the National Museum of Korea’s “Room of Quiet Contemplation,” which opened in 2021. Displaying only two gilt-bronze pensive, or “thinking,” Bodhisattva statues, the space has drawn over three million visitors to date and has become a new emblem of the state-run museum.