"Buddha, Please Lie Down for a Moment"... National Museum of Korea Achieves Breakthrough with World's Largest Equipment

World’s Largest Heritage-Dedicated CT Scanner Unveiled
National Museum of Korea Ushers in the Era of Non-Destructive Analysis for Large-Scale Cultural Assets
Three-Dimensional Imaging Reveals Internal Structures and Ritual Objects of Wooden Budd

A wooden Buddhist statue slowly entered a massive cylindrical structure. On the monitor, cross-sectional images revealed the internal structure that had been hidden for centuries, and inside the head, relics presumed to be made of paper and fabric appeared. This marks the beginning of a new era in investigation, allowing the interior of cultural assets to be examined without disassembling or damaging them.

Yonhap News Agency

On July 14, the National Museum of Korea unveiled its cylindrical computed tomography (CT) equipment dedicated to cultural heritage for the first time. This is the world’s largest device, capable of scanning large artifacts up to around 3 meters tall, and can non-destructively analyze the internal structure of large wooden Buddhist statues, as well as metal and stone cultural relics that were previously difficult to examine with conventional CT scanners.

During the demonstration, a wooden Buddhist statue from the Joseon Dynasty was scanned. The CT images revealed the wooden joints inside the statue, cracks, traces of restoration, and even the relics enshrined in its head. Such relics include scriptures, prayer papers, and textiles, which are inserted when the statue is made and serve as crucial clues in determining its period of creation and historical background. Until now, this information could only be obtained by using an endoscope or partially dismantling the statue, but now it can be retrieved without any damage.

On the 14th, at the Conservation Science Center of the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, an official demonstrated equipment at the cylindrical CT press conference for cultural heritage investigations. Photo by Yonhap News.

On the 14th, at the Conservation Science Center of the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, an official demonstrated the cylindrical CT equipment during the press briefing for cultural heritage investigation. Photo by Yonhap News

Although CT scans have already been used for cultural heritage investigations, the size and weight of many artifacts made analysis difficult due to equipment limitations. Medical CT scanners have narrow scanning spaces and industrial CT devices are also limited in accommodating large objects. The new equipment overcomes these limitations, enabling precise imaging not only of wooden Buddhist statues but also of temple bells, large metal crafts, and stone cultural heritage artifacts.

The range of applications is also wide. It enables the identification of internal cracks and corrosion to devise preservation strategies, and serves as foundational data for analyzing manufacturing techniques and repair histories. The accumulated data will also be used for digital restoration, the creation of three-dimensional models, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based research on cultural heritage.

Director Hongjoon Yoo of the National Museum of Korea is giving a greeting at the press conference for cylindrical CT for cultural heritage investigation held at the Conservation Science Center of the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the 14th. Photo by Yonhap News

The National Museum of Korea plans to utilize this equipment not only for its own collections but also for investigating large cultural assets kept at museums and temples nationwide. Experts expect that, as it becomes possible to acquire more information without harming cultural properties, this will serve as a pivotal moment for advancing preservation and research of cultural heritage in Korea to the next level.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.