YEOJU — The city of Yeoju is moving ahead with a plan to return the Treasure-designated Twin-Lion Stone Lantern of Godalsa Temple Site in Yeoju to its original location.
Yeoju said on the 9th that it has launched a project, in cooperation with the Korea Heritage Service and the National Museum of Korea, to move the stone lantern from the museum, which has housed and displayed it, back to the Godalsa Temple Site in Yeoju.
The lantern is believed to have been made around the 10th century, in the early Goryeo period. Designated a Treasure in 1963, it features an unusual design in which two lions support the lamp housing on their backs.
Archaeologists rate its sculptural value highly because the lions are crouching, unlike those on most twin-lion stone lanterns in Korea, which stand upright. The piece is considered notable for showing the creativity and delicate aesthetic sense of Goryeo-era artisans.
The lantern left its original site amid the turmoil of Japanese colonial rule and the years around liberation, and was relocated several times. After being kept by a local resident, it was moved in 1958 to the garden of the Dongwon wedding hall in Seoul's Jongno district, then to Gyeongbokgung Palace in 1959, and has been preserved and displayed at the National Museum of Korea since 2003.
Yeoju has held continuing talks with the Korea Heritage Service and the National Museum of Korea on how to carry out the transfer. Following a review by the architectural heritage subcommittee of the National Heritage Committee on the 20th of last month, follow-up steps such as preparing the destination site can now proceed more quickly.
Yeoju said the transfer carries significant meaning because a national heritage item that left its home amid a turbulent history is returning to where it belongs.
The city plans to work out a detailed schedule with the agencies involved and to ensure the site is properly prepared so the lantern can fully convey its historical and academic value at the Godalsa Temple Site.
