Silla Transcription of Avatamsaka Sutra (The Flower Garland Sutra), Zhou Version, in Ink on White Paper, Volumes 1-10 and 44-50

The Great Expansive Buddha Flower Garland Sutra, the Avatamsaka Sutra, is known for short as the Hwaeomgyeong. Its central teaching is that the Buddha and sentient beings are not two but one. The fundamental scripture of the Hwaeom school, it is one of the sutras that, with the Lotus Sutra, did most to shape Korean Buddhist thought. This is the oldest hand-copied sutra in Korea — a sutra written out and illustrated as an act of devotion — in scroll form, 29 cm high and 1,390.6 cm long. The monk Yeongi began it in 754, the thirteenth year of King Gyeongdeok of Silla, and finished it the following year. A colophon survives that records in detail the nineteen people who took part, the method of making the copy and the rites that went with it. It is an important record showing that sutra copying was established as a form of devotion to the scriptures from the Silla period, and its sentences in Idu, the old way of writing Korean with Chinese characters, are another feature. At the head is a frontispiece in gold summarising the sutra, and a cover-like painting of guardian deities, Buddhas and bodhisattvas, flowers and grasses. The painting, originally a single sheet, is now in two pieces, but as the only surviving Silla painting it is of great importance. It was made by Yeongi, who founded Hwaeomsa. As a record of Silla Hwaeom thought it is the only Silla document of its kind, and it has great value as a source not only for the Buddhism of the time but for bibliography and art history.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보