The Seokguram Grotto
A few posts ago, I wrote about the famous Buddhist temple Bulguksa. Today, I would like to talk about another special structure, the Seokguram Grotto (715 C.E.) which is about 3 kilometers away from the temple, and the Buddha statue (751 C.E.) which exists inside the grotto. Though I’ve never been, my parents have both visited Bulguksa and the Seokguram Grotto numerous times. They are both places of immense historical importance in Korea so are often popular places for class field trips and family trips. Both my parents remarked on how surprised they are by how white and glowing the statue is despite its age. In fact, the whole grotto has its own unique patina and emits a soft light, my mother said. The dome is quite large, approximately a little over six meters in diameter with a radius of more than three meters. The entrance to the grotto is about ten meters long so that visitors get their first view of the statue down a long passageway. In the past, visitors would have been allowed to go right up to the statue and even touch it. Now, it is preserved in a temperature and humidity-controlled setting behind a wall of glass.
Having visited Europe and seeing as well as studied about great Cathedrals around the world, I stood in awe under the Duomo (completed 1436 C.E.) in Firenze (Florence, Italy) as our guide explained the mathematical and visionary genius of Brunelleschi. Though the Seokguram Grotto is much much smaller, it stands up on its own and has many surprising features. First of all, there is the fact that the centerpiece of the dome weighs about two metric tons. Yet, for over a thousand years, it survived without having caved in. However, in the Samguk Yusa (as mentioned in the previous post, the Samguk Yusa is a collection of books that record the history of ancient Korea written by the Buddhist monk Ilyeon approximately 800 years ago), there is a very interesting account of a crack forming in the roof of the grotto’s dome one day. The builder was at his wit’s end on how to fix this problem and prevent the whole roof from caving in. Apparently, the builder had a dream that a heavenly god visited him in his dreams that night and told him not to worry for the crack would soon be fixed. In the morning, to the builder’s delight, he found the crack fixed and the rest of the project finished without any further complications. Though I doubt there was any divine intervention, the story reveals that if such a crack or problem existed which jeopardized the entire structure, the builders and artists of Silla were able to address the issue and find a solution using math and early ideas of engineering. Now that’s impressive!
