신라석탑 문비조각에 대한 고찰

Abstract

The door‒patterns originated from the wooden pagodas, so all the early stone pagodas have door‒patterns on the four sides. However, the brick pagodas have door‒patterns only on their south side with their open‒and‒shut functions valid because their structures do not allow the patterns on all the four sides. In the meantime, with time the door‒patterns on the stone pagodas were reduced from on the four sides to the two sides and again to the one side, which was due to the trends of being minimal and decorative in building pagodas. Initially, the door‒patterns were added to the bodies of pagodas, but with the decent of times it was settled that they were carved on the bodies. All the door‒patterns were limited to the first floors of the pagodas, which means that they perceived that the first floors were considered central in the pagodas and they correspond to the sanctuaries in the temples. Therefore, it can be said that the door‒patterns were significant with their symbolic meanings of the first floor of the pagodas. The door‒patterns on the Silla pagodas are various and in many cases are in good harmony with other reliefs on the pagodas. Especially, the door‒patterns have the intrinsic feature that they are accompanied by the Gate Guardians, and they were arranged in 8 figures on the four sides. This arrangement presumably left a huge effect on the iconography establishment of the Eight Guardian Kings. On the other hand, new design appeared in the door‒patterns under the influence of Vajrayana Buddhism, which allowed us to examine the conceptual systems of the new iconography. The door‒patterns on the Silla stone pagodas, in many cases, imitated Chinese styles, which originated from India. However, their importance cannot be easily dismissed in that the common features in architectural technology and culture can be investigated along with the development of various styles.