The reliquaries from the five-story stone pagoda in Wanggung-ri, Iksan () are a set of Buddhist reliquaries and associated votive objects discovered inside the five-story stone pagoda at the Wanggung-ri site in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, South Korea.
Discovery and historical background The pagoda was facing imminent danger of collapse, leading to further re-construction project by the central government. The relics were found in December 1965 in the platform and the roofstone of the first tier of the pagoda, which is known as the site of the royal palace of the formal entity, the Mahan confederacy. Mahan was a group of chiefdoms in the southern west part of Korea from the 3rd century. During the 4th century, the kingdom of Paekche rose as the leading power of the territory, later becoming one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.
The Iksan region served as a crucial political and cultural center during the late Baekje period, particularly under the reign of King Mu (r. 600–641 CE), who spearheaded major building projects including the nearby Mireuksa temple and the royal palace at Wanggung-ri. While the stone pagoda itself was erected on the site of a former palace complex, scholars long debated whether the pagoda and its contents belonged to the late Baekje period (7th century) or the Unified Silla / early Goryeo period (9th–10th century).
Subsequent archaeological excavations and stylistic analyses indicate that while the site originated as a 7th-century Baekje royal palace, it was converted into a Buddhist temple in later centuries. The reliquary set represents a fusion of Paekche and Silla.
Artifact features and composition The reliquary set was discovered in two primary locations within the pagoda: the roof stone cavity above the third story and the foundation stone (base) cavity.
The chief part of the relics is the Buddha's Śarīra unearthed in the roof stone. To preserve and protect the sacred relics from dust and damage, a three-tiered nested container system was employed. At the outermost layer was a gilded bronze outer box, intricately engraved with lotus patterns on its exterior, housing the primary inner vessels. Opening the door of this outermost gilded bronze box revealed the second-layer middle container: a silver-gilded inner box, constructed of silver coated with gold. At the innermost core rested a green glass relic vial, inside of which the actual relics of the Buddha were enshrined. Glass was selected for the innermost vessel because the imported glass from the Iranian Sasanian Empire or elsewhere was considered a material far more precious than gold.
One of the most remarkable findings is the complete text of the diamond sutra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) engraved onto 19 thin rectangular gold plates. Each plate measures approximately 14.8 cm in height and 13.7 cm in width, bearing two columns of embossed Chinese characters connected by gold wires. While the precise embossing technique demonstrates an extraordinarily high level of metallurgical skill, no comparable finding has been made elsewhere on the Korean Peninsula. At the time of excavation, the diamond sutra plates exhibited a brilliant golden glow and were naturally reported as gold plates. However, in 2006, a detailed elemental analysis by the conservation science team of the National Museum of Korea using state-of-the-art equipment like X-ray fluorescence (XRF) revealed that they were actually 'gilt-silver plates'—silver plates thickly gold-plated.The National Museum of Korea
See also Buddhism in Korea National treasures of South Korea
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