The Stone Cave Temples in Silla Era

신라시대(新羅時代)의 석굴사원(石窟寺院)

The stone caves in Korea, though they were first influenced by Chinese cave temples, were not made same with their predecessors in style. Nearly all Korean stone caves are the simulated ones built artificially, and they are divided into the following: A. The caves that were made up with several pieces of natural rocks with some wood works done over them to cover the open spaces between the rocks. B. Wood works were added in front of the rock-cut images of Buddha in order to construct the cave. C. The men-made caves Suk-kul-am in Kyung-ju is well-known among the above kind of the caves. In short, Korean stone caves have their distinction in which they were inspired by the Indian and Chinese examples and developed their own styles to meet the specific conditions and restraints of the Korean mountains. The extant Silla cave temples are classified in the following four groups: 1) The type of Shin-sun-sa(神仙寺) at Kyung-ju 2) The type of Ka-heung-ri cave(可興里) at Yong-ju(榮州) 3) The type of Kun-wi cave(軍威) 4) The type of Suk-kul-am(石窟庵) at Kyung-ju