『삼국유사』의 불탑과 장례 = Buddhist Pagoda and Funeral in Samgukyusa

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In this paper, as part of the complete enumeration of Samgukyusa, articles on Buddhist pagodas and funerals in Samgukyusa were selected to examine the aspects of Buddhist pagodas and funerals in Silla. A stupa is a Buddha's tomb that enshrines Buddha's relics, and since it originated from Shakyamuni's tabi, it can be closely related to Buddhist funerals. Therefore, Buddhist pagodas and funerals were used as keywords.
As a result of examining the records related to Buddhist pagodas in Samgukyusa, there were not many of them. The appearance of Buddhist pagodas as objects of worship and enshrinement of relics was also conveyed, but pagodas with smoke stories or 'miracles' were mainly recorded.
Furthermore, in the late Silla period, it was popular to build pagodas to wish for a rebirth in pure land due to the influx of Mugujeong-stupa, but there were no records of these pagodas in Samgukyusa. If the records of pagodas in Samgukyusa were related to the state or the royal family, and emphasized that the pagodas had clear miracles, the pagodas based on Mugujeong-stupa in the late Silla period had a strong character of pursuing only the rebirth of an individual or one's family in Pure Land. This suggests that Buddhism had a great influence on the Silla people not only as a political ideology but also as a view of the world after death.
It is the funeral method called “cremation” that clearly shows this Buddhist view of the afterlife. As a result of examining the records related to “funeral” in the Samgukyusa, records of the king's funeral and the location of the royal tomb are centered, followed by fragmentary records of the funerals of monks.
There were only eight kings who cremated after death, including King Munmu. Given that most of these kings left wills, it seemed that it was the king's decision to choose cremation. The first person to be cremated as a Silla monk on record was Jajang. However, monks were often held at traditional burial sites rather than cremation on record.
Of course, at this time, cremation tombs were buried after cremation, and it was unknown because they didn’t remain, but it is estimated that there were much more cases where they were sprinkled after cremation.
Like this, when looking at the trend of cremation (tomb), there must have been many monks or nobles who did cremation.
As such, there are fewer records of pagodas and funerals, especially cremation, in Samgukyusa, but it confirms that awareness of Buddhist funerals and the Buddhist view of the world after death has been established after the acceptance of Buddhism. Above all, it is thought that the records in Samgukyusa can be interpreted more actively when epigraphs and archaeological findings are actively utilized.