The Gyeongju National Museum is unveiling for the first time the sarira reliquary of the wooden pagoda at Hwangnyongsa Temple Site in Gyeongju, in the special exhibition "Hwangnyong Bongbul." These are objects that no one has laid eyes on for 1,300 years since the pagoda burned down. The exhibition period and admission fee will be confirmed through a museum notice.
The Hwangnyongsa wooden pagoda was a pagoda built of wood, and that wood lost its form in the flames. The sarira reliquary enshrined at the center of the pagoda was metal, and it withstood the heat. This exhibition places what endured behind glass and gives visitors time to look slowly.
The place to visit after seeing the exhibition is the Hwangnyongsa Temple Site. In spring the grass grows, and in winter the dry grass lies down in the wind. The foundation stones are cold to the touch, and after rain the smell of wet earth lingers.
The sarira reliquary was not an object made for viewing. Those who built the pagoda chose what they considered most precious and placed it inside, and even after the pagoda fell it kept its place. What the exhibition shows is closer to that kept time than to a list of artifacts.
Putting the objects on view also means giving them over to light and air. The longer they stay hidden, the safer the objects are, but artifacts that go unseen are quietly pushed out of people's memory. Where to strike the balance is the real difficulty of an exhibition like this, and the museum sets the period and conditions somewhere in between.
In Gyeongju, Hwangnyongsa is the name of a temple site and at the same time a long-standing part of the local landscape of daily life. There are people who have passed that empty field on the way to school, on an evening walk. For them, this unveiling becomes a chance to see what was in the ground they always passed by.
It is better to plan a visit after the museum's notice comes out. The exhibition is titled "Hwangnyong Bongbul," and the venue is the Gyeongju National Museum. The museum has not announced further details of the schedule.
On leaving the exhibition hall, it is worth walking to the site where the wooden pagoda stood. The sarira reliquary behind the glass and the foundation stones at the temple site came from the same pagoda.
Event Information
Exhibition: Gyeongju National Museum special exhibition "Hwangnyong Bongbul"
Venue: Gyeongju National Museum
Artifacts on view: Sarira reliquary of the wooden pagoda at Hwangnyongsa Temple Site, Gyeongju
Dates and fees: To be confirmed by museum notice
