Woljeongsa Octagonal Nine-Story Stone Pagoda

The Woljeongsa Octagonal Nine-Story Stone Pagoda is a pagoda located within Woljeongsa Temple, founded by Master Jajang. In front of it, a stone bodhisattva statue in a posture of offering sits facing it. The pagoda consists of a nine-story body placed on a two-tiered octagonal base, topped with a finial. The lower tier of the base is carved with niche designs, and support stones are placed on the upper parts of both the lower and upper tiers to hold the upper stones. Unlike typical stone pagodas, where the body sharply decreases in size as it goes up, this pagoda maintains almost the same height from the second story upward, and the first story has small niches (chambers for enshrining Buddhist statues) on its four sides. The roof stones are simply finished without stepped supports on their undersides, and wind chimes are hung at each of the eight slightly upturned corners. The finial above the roof stones remains perfectly intact, with the lower part made of stone and the upper part of gilt bronze, adding to its splendid beauty. In the Goryeo period, multi-story stone pagodas with polygonal plans, deviating from square ones, became popular mainly in the northern regions of Korea, and this pagoda was also created in that trend, representing early Goryeo stone pagodas. It well displays the splendid and aristocratic aspects unique to Buddhist culture of that time, and its overall proportions and carving techniques are solid, making it worthy of representing polygonal multi-story stone pagodas. Additionally, the bronze wind chimes and the gilt bronze finial provide important material for examining metalworking techniques.