In the corner of the temple, there was a big stone lotus basin. It was also very unique stone sculpture.
I could not see that kind of stone lotus basin. It was believed to be made in Shilla dynasty, 720 AD. What made people carve this basin ?.
Scholars told that kind of sculpture was very rare in Korea. But nobody seemed to curious why they built that stone sculpture in this temple.
In my guess, the stone lotus basin is deeply related to the Buddhist teachings.
There are two kinds of Buddhism in the world, Mahayanist Buddhism and Hinayana Buddhism.
Mahayanist Buddhism spread into China, Korea and Japan, and Hinayana Buddhism spread over Sri Lanka , Cambodia and Thailand.
According to the geological location, Mahayanist Buddhism was called the Northern Buddhism, and Hinayana Buddhism was called the Southern Buddhism.
Among the Buddhist teachings, the northern Buddhism took the basic principles from the Lotus Sutra which had been taught by Buddha.
And Beopjoo-sa temple was the center of teaching the Lotus Sutra.
In my view, there must be mutual related meaning between the teaching of Buddha, the Lotus Sutra, and the Stone Lotus Basin. The stone lotus basin could be interpreted the teachings of Buddha, the Lotus Sutra.