화순 운주사 북두칠성 원반석과 산정와불의 고려천문학

Abstract

There are two interesting relics of seven disc stones represented north dipper constellation and the huge Buddha statue lain at the top of Unjoo‒temple mountain in Hwasoon‒gun, Jeollanam‒do, South Korea. Above of all, each size of seven disc stones is mostly different from 2 to 4 meters in diameter and is build according to the brightness of the dipper star by the measure. This fact means the dipper stones of Unjoo‒sa were made by magnitude of stars from the beginning of foundation. The excavation data of the museum of Jeonnam University show the early part of Unjoo‒sa buildings were build around the first half of 12 centuries because the angle of early buildings was adjusted to the meridian of north and south. This amazing phenomenon is worthy of notice for a kind of huge astronomical stone sculpture. I would like to put emphasis on a Korean astronomical megalithic structure confirmed at first in the Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, the big Buddha statue are lain at the top of Unjoo‒temple mountain. By my measure of disposition between the dipper stones and the top Buddha statue, it is similar to relation of the polaris and northern dipper, because the lying statue lay as north direction to seven stones. The composition such as that could be confirmed at a Koryo dynasty Buddhist star chart called Chi‒sung‒gwang Buddhist Painting containing many Buddhist constellation images. I also argued that the central twin back Buddha of hollow sculptures sitting back to back with each other could be explained to correspond to the Sakya Buddha and Maitreya Buddha. As above, in this paper I studied about astronomical approach and historical meaning of the mystic dipper stones and top lying Buddha at Unjoo‒temple in Korea.