The Sacheon Incense-Burial Stele and the Hyangdo

Also called: Sacheon Maehyang Stele, Hyangdo

In 1387, late in Goryeo, some 4,100 people at Sacheon formed a pact, buried incense wood and raised a stele. The hyangdo, the religious bodies behind such rites, later became village community groups.

Maehyang was a Buddhist rite of burying incense wood in coastal mudflats to pray for blessings, tied to hopes for the coming of Maitreya. The stele at Heungsa-ri, Sacheon, was raised in 1387 (U 13), amid Japanese pirate raids, when some 4,100 people led by monks formed a pact (gye) and buried incense praying for the king’s long life, the strength of the state and the peace of the people. Carved on an undressed boulder and clearly dated, it is a Treasure that shows local society in late Goryeo.

Those who joined such works were the hyangdo. At first they were Buddhist associations pooling labour and wealth to make images, pagodas and temples or to bury incense; in late Goryeo their religious character faded and they became farming-village groups sharing communal labour, weddings, funerals and village rites.