Baekje Landscape Tile

Also called: Landscape tile of Baekje, Patterned tiles from Oe-ri

A Baekje patterned tile from a temple site at Oe-ri, Buyeo, carved with layered mountains, pines, clouds and waterside rocks that evoke a Daoist realm of immortals.

It is one of eight kinds of patterned tiles found in 1937 at a temple site in Oe-ri, Gyuam-myeon, Buyeo — square tiles about 29 cm a side, pressed in moulds and fired. Behind rocks at the water’s edge rise ranks of three-peaked mountains, each crowned with pines, while clouds drift above; a figure walks toward a house on the mountainside.

The landscape, like a paradise of immortals, is read as a sign of the Daoist (immortality) beliefs Baekje absorbed. In exams it appears with the Sataek Jijeok Stele and the Gilt-bronze Incense Burner as evidence of Baekje Daoism. Together with the phoenix, goblin and lotus tiles found with it, it is a Treasure under the name "Patterned tiles from Oe-ri, Buyeo", now in the National Museum of Korea.