Gilt-bronze Pensive Maitreya Bodhisattva (1964)

A small bodhisattva, 17.5 cm high, found during construction work at Pyeongcheon-ri, Pyeongyang, in 1944. It is heavily corroded all over, clearly eroded by long burial, and shows many traces of fire. Pensive images were fashionable in the Three Kingdoms period, but examples had been known only from Baekje and Silla; this one is notable for giving, for the first time, an example from Goguryeo. It wears a three-peaked crown and bows its head slightly, lost in thought. The face is squarish, the eyes half closed, a faint smile spreading at the mouth. The upper body is bare, showing the slender waist, and a skirt covers the lower body. Above the knees the skirt's folds are only briefly incised, but where it covers the pedestal it hangs naturally in several layers of vertical folds. The left foot rests on a lotus pedestal and the right lies on the left knee, the left hand holding the ankle. The right elbow rests on the right knee, but the forearm and hand are broken away, so the original pose is unknown; it was presumably the hand propping the chin in thought. The face is large overall, in curious contrast to the slender body, and the whole expresses the character of a bodhisattva deep in thought. It is thought to date from the later sixth century, and it is notable as a Goguryeo pensive image with a certain findspot.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보