Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple
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How it came to be
Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple stand about 3 km apart on the slopes of Mount Tohamsan at Gyeongju, the capital of Silla. The chief minister Kim Dae-seong began them in 751, building Bulguksa, tradition says, for his parents in this life and Seokguram for his parents in a previous life. The Silla court completed the work in 774, after his death.
Seokguram is an artificial grotto of granite with an antechamber, a corridor and a round main chamber. Its domed ceiling and corridor were built from more than 360 stone slabs, and in the rotunda a seated Buddha, generally identified as Sakyamuni, faces the sea, surrounded by reliefs of bodhisattvas and disciples. Bulguksa is a group of wooden halls on stone terraces, with two stone pagodas, Seokgatap and Dabotap, in front of the main hall, Daeungjeon.
Bulguksa's wooden buildings were burned during the Imjin War and rebuilding began after 1604. Seokguram had fallen into poor repair by the early 20th century; between 1913 and 1915 it was dismantled, reassembled and covered with concrete, which trapped moisture. A second concrete dome was added in the 1960s, and the interior is now seen through a glass wall. The two sites were inscribed in 1995.
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