Five-storey pagoda in Jabok Temple

July 21, 2026

Built in the period of the Koryo Dynasty (918-1392), the five-storey pagoda in the Jabok Temple is located at the site of the temple in Songchon county town in South Phyongan Province.

The pagoda consists of a two-tiered platform on a flat and broad slate rock, a five-storey tower body and a tower head. Its present height is 4.89 metres and a side of the pedestal is 2.08 metres wide.

The combination of concrete elements of different colours on the tower suggests that it has been repaired several times, but the main component retains the original shape.

The pedestal, the tiered platform and the first storey of the body are made up of long and large stones and stone slabs in keeping with the relatively large scale of the tower.

Three rectangular patterns were carved on each side of the body stone in the lower tier of the platform, and square pillars stick out on the edges of one side of the body stone of the upper tier of the platform.

There is no other decoration on the body stones of the tower except prismatic columns and a small concave chamber on the southern side of the first-storey body stone. The roofing stones are thin and has a gentle slant.

The eaves props are in three tiers and the lower props of the first tier for supporting the body stone are on the roofing stone. The bottom line of the eaves is almost straight but the top line is twisted up at the edges to give it an airy look.

There is a hole which was used to suspend a bell beneath a corner of the roofing stone.

The tower is relatively wide in proportion to its height and the upper tier of the platform is higher than the lower one, and the large gradation from the first storey up to other parts of the tower body makes it look stable.

Though the temple was built in the early days of Koryo, the pagoda demonstrates the features of towers in the middle years of Koryo in the texture of the body stones in the platform and the inconspicuous eaves props of the roofing stones on the tower body.

THE PYONGYANG TIMES

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