Bronze Bell of Cheonheungsa Temple
1010
A great bronze bell nearly two metres tall hangs from a loop shaped like a dragon, with a hollow sound tube rising beside the dragon's head. The body swells gently and is divided by bands of arabesque ornament. Near the top are four square panels each holding nine raised bosses like lotus buds, and below them two flying celestial beings kneel on clouds, one on each side, with ribbons streaming behind them. Two lotus medallions mark the points where the bell was struck with a wooden beam.
Korean temple bells are struck from the outside, and their design follows the model of the great Silla bells of the eighth century, above all the bell of King Seongdeok in Gyeongju. This one shows how the tradition was adapted in the early Goryeo period: the dragon loop is more vigorous, the sound tube is decorated with lotus petals, and a cartouche on the body carries an inscription in Chinese characters in the shape of a Buddhist tablet. It records that the bell was cast in the year ten ten for Cheonheungsa temple on Mount Seonggeo near present day Cheonan. The bell is designated National Treasure two hundred and eighty.
The temple has long since disappeared, and the bell passed through the palaces of Joseon before entering the museum. Its clear inscription makes it a fixed point for dating other bells of the period, and its long, low tone, sampled in the gallery, is the sound that once called monks to prayer at dawn and dusk. Look for the celestial beings on the sides, whose flowing scarves are almost identical to those on the pensive bodhisattva crown, and listen for the resonance that the sound tube was designed to give.
Did You Know? The inscription dating the bell to ten ten is written inside a cartouche shaped like a Buddhist name tablet, a Goryeo fashion that helps date many other bells.
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