Microcosmi in pietra
In the present article I am going to analyze the main features of a "sacred place" such as the royal necropolis in the city of Ji'an (Jilin province, People's Republic of China), the second capital of the ancient Koguryŏ kingdom (37 bc-668 ad). I have decided to focus on that par...
| Published in: | Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni |
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| Subtitles: | The microcosms in stone |
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | Italian |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Morcelliana
2014
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| In: |
Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
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| Further subjects: | B
Microcosm & macrocosm
B escatologia verticale B Taoism B Architecture B Sacred Space B megalitismo B microcosmo B taoismo B Koguryŏ B Koguryo (Kingdom) B Stone B vertical eschatology B Tombs B Megalithic monuments B China B Monuments B microcosmos |
| Summary: | In the present article I am going to analyze the main features of a "sacred place" such as the royal necropolis in the city of Ji'an (Jilin province, People's Republic of China), the second capital of the ancient Koguryŏ kingdom (37 bc-668 ad). I have decided to focus on that particular site as the topic of this essay due to the impressive concentration of tombs it contains (over 10,000), placing it among the top archaeological highlights of the kingdom. The site has produced evidence of a religious space in which funeral rituals were officiated as an act of ancestor reverence aimed at legitimizing the power of the ruling family. These Korean pyramids seem to have held special symbolic and social value, and represented a whole different universe where both the body and the soul of the deceased could dwell. Starting in the 4th century ad, Ji'an tombs apparently shifted towards progressive internalization of their monumental space, evolving from megalithic buildings erected to flaunt the dynasty's opulence, to a simpler form of architecture designed to enclose it. The magnificence of the tombs does not lie in their external shape or imposing stonemasonry, but rather in the interior symbolism sealed within their walls, away from the public eye. Such new rearrangement of the tomb's structural layout and function gave rise to Koguryŏ's wall painting tradition, whose iconography has fueled this article's speculations on the way the ancients might have perceived the afterlife. At the same time, the tombs' architectural design also underwent a gradual transformation; originally subterranean, they eventually rose above the ground as if mystically soaring into the sky. Preserving the remains and the spirit of the dead, these tombs appear to have become a sort of microcosm which can be accessed only through an esoteric passageway, a mystical gateway to the afterlife. (English) |
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| ISSN: | 2611-8742 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
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