On April 5, 2005, a great fire raged across the mountainous, forested Gangwon province in northeast South Korea. Sparked late the night before and fanned by dry woods and strong winds, the devastation was widespread and catastrophic. At Naksansa Temple, a renowned Korean Buddhist temple complex in the Jogye order with 1,300 years of history and a handsome view overlooking the East Sea, little was spared. Of the 20 ritual halls that dotted the picturesque mountainside, 13 were completely destroyed. So, too, was the temple’s sacred bronze bell.
Cast in 1469 at the direction of King Yejong, the eighth monarch of Korea’s Joseon dynasty, the bell was dedicated to the memory of the monarch’s father, King Sejo, who had died the year prior. The elder king had close ties with and a fondness for Naksansa, and had visited the temple earlier in his reign. The bell, standing 62 in. tall with a diameter of 39 in., was cast to commemorate that royal patronage. It gave service at Naksansa Temple in Buddhist rituals for over five centuries.
Image: A Buddhist nun strikes the great bronze bell at Naksansa Temple in April 2004, a year before the bell’s destruction.
Destruction and rebirth
The indiscriminate blaze in 2005 consumed the pavilion where the bell was hung, encasing the bell in a conflagration of centuries-old woodwork. The extreme heat caused the bell to drop from its suspension, held aloft by two encircling bronze dragons, and partially melt into the rubble. Only a few spare fragments survived.
Image: The bell pavilion ablaze at Naksansa Temple in Gangwon Province, South Korea, on April 5, 2005. Courtesy: The Seoul Times.
Those fragments were collected and are now stored at the Korean National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage in Daejeon, South Chungcheong province. Before the fire, the bell had been endowed as a national treasure of Korea (Treasure No. 479), but following its destruction, the Cultural Heritage Administration stripped the lost 15th-century bell of its designation. A replica was created from an analysis of surviving fragments and earlier inked rubbings of the inscriptions and iconography. Within a year, the replica was installed at Naksansa Temple to once again call the faithful to prayer, ringing for the first time in October 2006.
Continuing in service
The replica bell at Naksansa Temple is sounded in the evening and morning to mark the beginning and end of curfew. An hour after the evening meal, the bell is struck 33 times to reach all 33 celestial worlds. The bell is struck 28 times in the morning, representing the incessant lineage of teachers from Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of the Buddhist religion, to Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch.
As is tradition in most Korean temples, the bell is joined in the pavilion by three other percussive instruments that call beings across land, sea, and air: an enormous dharma drum for earth-bound creatures, a carved wooden fish for those under water, and a cloud-shaped gong for sky dwellers. Using all four instruments sends Buddha’s teachings throughout the world, as the deep reverberations of the bell are said to emulate the voice of Buddha and give relief to tormented beings in hell. A second large bronze bell hangs within the same pavilion and also serves as a signaling instrument to regulate temple life.
Image: The replica bell and dharma drum at Naksansa Temple on April 25, 2021.
A Buddhist chant often accompanies the bell’s deep-throated resonance: “May all living beings who hear this bell be relieved from suffering, develop wisdom, and attain enlightenment. May we all live in peace.” That’s a sentiment no fire can destroy.
Cover image: A woman sounds the bell at Naksansa Temple in April 2004, a year before the bell’s destruction.
