Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

The ancient oasis nations located at the dessert area of the southern route of the Silk Road, the era of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of China and the era of the Three Kingdoms of Korea had Buddhism, which spread rapidly and developed, as a common point. The construction of King’s castle was another precondition for the foundation and existence of a nation with the religion. On the Silk Road, which had been the route of Buddhist spread to the East, the construction of the king’s castle was done in a very narrow space due to local geographic characteristics, and it seemed Buddhist temples were placed inside the castles naturally as it was recognized as the national religion. The remains of ancient tomb land are found in the northernmost of the ancient castles while it has been identified that the Buddhist pagodas and temples were formed in adjacent southern region. The relation between the tomb lands and the Buddhist pagodas cannot be confirmed using only these two cases, however it is possible to interpret that the ideas of death and the afterlife were accepted in religious perspectives when constructing the ancient kings’ castles. The locations of Buddhist temples had been identified to have relationship not only with the tomb lands but also with the king’s castle. The temples were built on the northwest of the castles. The tombs, Buddhist structures and the king’s castle were built in order from the north. This may imply that there had been relationship established between the afterlife and Buddhism. Also the royal family had connections with the religion for its and nation’s prosperities. The style of the king’s castle was also affected by the religious idea about the present and the future. In this way, it was identified that the way to construct the castle as revealed along the Silk Road had a direct impact on the era of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of China, in particular, the Northern Wei so that the locations of intra-castle temples after moving the capital to Luoyang Cheng were mostly concentrated to the northwestward direction of the palace. Considering the fact that such characteristics could be found in the castles built after the Northern Wei, the cultures from other regions must have been spread into the Northern Wei’s Buddhist culture. This means that the ceaseless cultural exchange through the Silk Road had affected the construct of the king’s castle in many ways. Moreover, not only the culture from the Silk Road but East Asian Buddhism and folklore impacted the building of king’s castles.