Title : Special Postage Stamps for 5000 Years of Korean Art Series (1st Issue)
Stamp Serial#
 1128 
KPC#
 C-817 
MICHEL#
 1150 
StanGib#
 1352 
Scott#
 1162 
Date of Issue
 04/01/1979 
Quantity
 5,000,000 
Denomination
 20Won 
Design
 Tabo (Prabhutaratna) Pagoda at Pulguk-sa Temple 
Designer
 Park, Yeo song 
Image Area
 23mm×33mm 
Perforation
 13 
Sheet Composition
 5×5 
Paper
 White unwatermarked
Print
 Government Printing & Mint Agency of the Republic of Korea 
Description
An exhibition of 354 artistic masterpieces representing "5000 years of Korean art" is to be held in seven major cities of the United States from May 1 this year through the end of June 1981. In commemorations of this significant event, the Ministry of Communications is issuing a total of 30 kinds of special postage stamps on six occasions during the exhibition period - 5 kinds of stamps each time - in order to give a fresh image of Korea with abundant cultural inheritance, at the same time showing iff the excellent quality of our traditional culture to the entire world. Degigns to be used as the themes of those special stamps are to be selected from among the entires to the overseas exhibition.

The five following art works have been chosen as the themes for the first of the series:
5. Tabo (Prabhutaratna) Pagoda at Pulguk-sa Temple.
National Treasure No. 20, this pagoda, standing in front of the main hall of Pulguk-sa Temple, is of a peculiar shape built during the period of Unified Silla (in the middle of 8th century). It is 10.4m in height and the width of its foundation is 4.4m. The first story is a platform provided with four stone staircases one for each of the four sides-leading up to an enclosed area which is presumed to have accommodated a Buddhist image at one time. Only one of the four lions originally installed at each of four corners of the foundation has survived up to the present. Four cornice of rounded, beamlike blocks of granite. Above this are three tiers of eight-sided units, each being supported by a paling of stone spokes. The second paling is patterned after bamboo stalks, complete with nodes carved realistically in the stone. The palings of the top story flare out to carry a morning-glory-shaped roof formed of a single slab of stone, from the center of which rises a filal in a crown-ball-and plate sequence.