Stone Lantern and Gwaneum-jeon Hall in Tongdo-sa

The whole area of Tongdo-sa temple is said to be divided into 3 parts.
The buildings between the one pillar entrance gate and the Buli-mun gate were belonged to the first area.

From this posting, I’d like to introduce the buildings of second area.
The second area is located between the Buli-mun gate and Daewung-Jeon hall which is the main building in this temple.

In my guess, the halls belonged to the second area are more splendid than others.

The first hall in the second area what I saw first passing through the Buli-mun was Gwaneum-Jeon.
Gwaneum is the Bodhisattva of great compassion.

There was a lantern in front of the hall. It was very impressive. It looked like to be made in the era of Goryeo dynasty.
Usually the stone lantern was set up in front of important buildings.
It seemed that Gwaneum-jeon was the most important building in this area.
The balance of the stone lantern seemed not so excellent to that of Shilla dynasty. It was strange for me.

Gwaneum-Joen hall is said the central building in the second area. Why did they think Gwaneum-jeon hall the most important in this second area ? In my guess, it is because the healing for ordinary people was the most important function in the second area as the first area. They believe that Gwaneum Bodhisattva is listening every voices of people and touch their sufferings with 1000 arms.

This gwaneum-jeon hall looked like to be built in late Goryeo dynasty, but this hall was also fired during the Japanese invasion 1592-1597 and rebuilt.