Dragon's Head Finial

Unified Silla, 9th century
h. = 174 cm (5 ft 8.5 in)
Daegu National Museum
Daegu, Korea

The tall finial in the left photo once sat on top of the flagstaff of a Buddhist temple in Yeongju. Its mouth contains a pully wheel to work the rope that moved the flags up and down; the entire assembly, including its now missing wooden flagpole, was held upright by twin stone flagpole supports. These flagpoles were quite tall. The right photo shows a full-scale model (about 30 m, 100 ft) located on the museum grounds. In this example, the stone supports plus base are about 1/3 the length of the flagpole.