Three-storied stone pagoda in Dogi-Dong

Finally, I have The Map! One of my coworkers picked up an english-language tourist map for me from the highway rest area. I've been looking for one of these, even asking at the museums and attractions for a map or tourist guide in English without success. And now, in my possession I have a guide to everything historical, photogenic, and cultural around Anseong mapped out on paper. I now know how it feels to have discovered the Rosetta Stone.

Beginning with the most local artifact to my apartment, I set out to find the Three-Storied stone pagoda of Dogi-Dong. According to the map it stands across the street from the Anseong fire department headquarters, which is down the road from the police station. Finding the police station is easy, it's near the park where I joined the nice family for a picnic lunch.

Driving past the police station I quickly found the fire department headquarters and soon thereafter the road past as shown on the map - I'd driven too far. Driving back I discovered a Buddhist temple and thought maybe the pagoda is an artifact on their temple grounds, but alas looking around I saw nothing made of stone or three stories tall. I assessed the gas station as not being pagoda-shaped and not nearly tall enough, but given the fuel prices these days I briefly considered the wisdom of erecting a shrine to gasoline.

I drove around the area, over roads between the rice paddies carefully threading the rental car over the narrow winding paths. All the roads between the rice paddies are about two feet above water and just barely wide enough for a farm truck, strangely crooked and completely flat. I did find a three story church not far from where the map showed the pagoda, but at last check Christians don't build pagodas.


There's lots of egrets around here. I keep taking pictures of them but I haven't gotten any really good close ups yet, they spook easily, and it probably doesn't help to wear an orange tee-shirt while sneaking up on them, either. I can walk or drive within about fifty feet from them before they flee but I keep trying. When I do get a good picture it'll be here, but for now here's one I saw while searching for the pagoda.


How hard could it possibly be to find a three-story stone pagoda? I mentally reviewed what I'm looking for: a pagoda - it should look like big stack of boxes. It's made from stone: I can take it for granite. It's three stories tall - anything that tall should stand out like a huge stone lightning rod around here! I'm in the middle of a huge flooded marsh recently planted with rice shoots, how could I not find it? With frustrations mounting I stop at the intersection of a paddy road and the highway and restore my blood sugar with peanut butter & jelly and an apple. Okay, I admit I did buy the California Farms brand of peanut butter, but it's Ottogi brand strawberry jam and Seoul Food brand bread! I'm really trying to fit into the culture!

As I finished my last bite of apple and swallow of iced tea I saw it: the stairway. Across the rice paddy I spotted a stone stairway and with trembling hands I took a shaky picture zoomed way in to document my discovery. Could this actually be the stone stairway leading up to the Three-storied stone pagoda of Dogi-dong? As I got closer I wondered what type of treasure I might find at the top - the stairway looked ancient, the stair treads possibly worn thin from the of millions of pilgrims that must have made the long journey to Dogi-dong. I could only imagine the relief in the hearts and minds of those who came before as they spied the stairs and gathered all their remaining strength to make the final ascent. I was quivering with excitement, finally have found the steps to the pagoda...




I mounted the stairs, basking in the glow of my good fortune to have come so far from home to visit a sacred relic in the Land of the Morning Calm. At the top of the stairway, just outside the fence guarding the stone pagoda, there's a sign proclaiming that this is an official "Monumental monument" of Gyeonggi-do. The entire plaque reads,

"Three storied stone pagoda of Dogi-dong, Anseong.
Cultural Property of Gyeonggi-do No. 76

This is a pagoda with the height of 5.4m erected on a hill from where one can look over the downtown of old Anseong. The overall configuration indicates that it is one of the pagodas of Goryeo, which followed the style of those of Baekje."

I'll let you do your own Wikipedia lookup for Goryeo - it's amazing how old this is. And here it is, in all it's glory.



So there it is, the Three-storied stone pagoda of Dogi-dong. On my way home I spotted this sign at the highway:



Later in the day I visited two Buddhist temples and they deserve a blog entry of their own. Stay tuned, it's just getting interesting.

Jerry