The Korean people, with a time-honoured history spanning 5 000 years and brilliant culture, have developed valuable national heritage from ancient times by dint of uncommon talents and wisdom.

The Korean-style architecture of building pagodas is one of them.

Ri In Dong, head of a department of Pyongyang University of Architecture said: The pagoda traces its origin to the menhir in the primitive ages. Out of their desire to protect their own tribes and make them stronger than others, the people in the Bronze Age built the menhir, symbolic of the power of nature. The people’s intention to demonstrate the might of their tribes made them build a vertical structure facing the sky. From that time, they tried to build a vertical structure, namely, the pagoda, in reflection of their dream to soar skyward and, in the course of this, the architecture of building pagodas was developed in Korea.

Korea has many well-renowned pagodas such as the Pagoda of Kumgang Temple, Nine-storied Pagoda of Hwangryong Temple, Tabo Pagoda, Sokga Pagoda and 13-storied Octagonal Pagoda of Pohyon Temple.

The Pagoda of Kumgang Temple built in 498 is located in Taesong District, Pyongyang. This wooden seven-storied pagoda, 67 metres high (body 53.5m and top 13.5m), was the biggest one in the East in those days.

The 13-storied Octagonal Pagoda of Pohyon Temple in Mt Myohyang is the typical structure in the Middle Ages of Korea, which was erected smoothly with delicately-trimmed granite and decorations.

The Nine-storied Wooden Pagoda of Hwangryong Temple built in the 7th century and the Tabo and Sokga pagodas of Pulguk Temple still remain unchanged still today even after a thousand and hundreds of years, showcasing the development of the architecture in those days.

What is noticeable in the Korean-style architecture of building pagodas is that it gradually changed from the wooden pagoda-oriented architecture into the stone pagoda-oriented one. There were stone pagodas in the period of the Three Kingdoms when wooden pagodas were easily seen, and wooden pagodas were also built in the period of stone pagoda-oriented architecture of the feudal Joson dynasty. But, it is clear that the wooden pagoda-oriented architecture developed into the stone pagoda-oriented one. The most grandiose wooden pagodas in the Korean history of the middle ages were built in the period of the Three Kingdoms, whereas numerous stone pagodas were built in the period after the founding of Koryo so as to be called as a stone pagoda country. In the course of this, the architecture of stone pagoda gained the upper hand.

The architecture of wooden and stone pagodas has a common feature that both of them have the same structural elements and that the height and width of every storey are in exact proportion. It has such a difference that the height of all structural elements in stone pagodas was set bigger than the width in order to preserve the features of stone pagodas, which were much smaller than wooden ones on the whole.

These facts clearly prove that the Korean ancestors created and developed a high level of architecture by reasonably adjusting structures and their proportion according to different building materials and sizes.

What is exceptional in the Korean-style architecture of building pagodas is that a people could not enter the stone pagodas, unlike those in other countries. This shows a high level of creativity of the Korean people who did not follow in others’ footsteps but developed their own architecture.

Ri Yu Jong, lecturer of the Sci-Tech Complex explained as follows the models of old pagodas on display in the hall of sci-tech development history: As structures with high height in comparison with the plane size, the old pagodas in Korea are featured with a sense of ascent. Magnificent pagodas strike people with admiration at the architecture in those days, while refined pagodas with small size showcase the talents of people in those days.

The Korean-style architecture of building pagodas spread to neighbouring countries, making a great contribution to developing the architecture of pagodas around the world.

Today, the architecture is being carried forward as required by the aesthetic sensibilities of the times in building modern structures.

The architecture was inscribed on the national intangible cultural heritage list.