The purpose of this article is making investigation of the principal composition of the twin-pagodas in Buddhist temple through ornaments of a case preserving relics of Buddha in the east and west pagodas of Gameunsa temple. This research has an important meaning in clarifying that the concept of placement two Buddhas together with lotus sutra, which was only applied to Bulkuksa temple, has been extended to Gameunsa temple. And this observation gave us a clear explanation for the principal composition at the twin-pagodas in Buddhist temple plans. The author obtained the following conclusion from this article : The cases preserving relics of the Buddha for the west and east pagodas are globally in similar form as the type of a royal palace. But the different points between eastern and western can be seen on the existence of Buddhist statues on the base floor, set-up of the gate at railings, and 4 lion statues at a coner of the base floor. In the western pagoda, there are Buddha statues above the base-floor of the cases preserving relics. These Buddha statues are composed of a boy monks and angels with playing music for the praise of the Sakyamuni Buddha lecturing the Lotus sutra at YoungChui Mountain. On the other hand, in the eastern pagoda, Buddha statues on the cases preserving relics are composed of a the Four Devas and monks as a defending God of the nation of Buddha. In the eastern pagoda, one can see something that does not exist in the western pagoda, which is a gate located in railing of a case preserving the relics. This gate described the scene of the Sakyamuni Buddha entering into the pagoda of 7 treasures. In a corner of the case preserving relics in the eastern pagoda, there is another thing which does not exist in the western pagoda. This is a sculpture of a lion which symbols the seat of Lion supporting the Buddha in the Dabotap(the pagoda of 7 treasures). When we observe the form and structure, the descriptions at the railings, the gate, the shrine, the statue of a lion, and the accessories in jewelries, at the cases preserving the relics in the eastern pagoda, one can realize that they have the same combination structures between the ones at Dabotaps in Bulguksa temple and those in China as well as in Japan, all of which represent the Gyun-Bo-Tap-Pum of Lotus Sutra. Among the distribution rules in the twin-pagodas in Buddhist temple, the application of the ideal of lotus was known to be effected only to Bulguksa temple. But from the result of the present article, it is more clearly proved by applying the Gameunsa temple that the distribution theory in the twin-pagodas in Buddhist temple was in fact based on the ideal of lotus.

• 김상태(Ph.D., Research Scholar at Center for Korean Studies, UCLA) | Kim, Sang-Tae