Stone Seated Vairocana Buddha from Seongnamamsa Temple Site, Sancheong

This Vairocana Buddha is important because the inscription on a pyrophyllite relic jar found in the middle stone of its pedestal records that in 766, the second year of King Hyegong, two monks, Beopseung and Beobyeon, made this stone Vairocana to fulfil the wish of the late Du On-aerang, and enshrined it with the Dharani of Immaculate and Pure Light at Gwaneumam in Seongnamamsu (su here meaning an old temple). It is important as the oldest dated Vairocana in Korea making the wisdom-fist gesture, and it is regarded as an absolute source for the study of ancient sculpture, where dating evidence is scarce. That the form of a Vairocana in Buddha guise making the wisdom-fist gesture was established by 766 is also notable, reflecting new Buddhist thought and a new current in Buddhist history. As the first inscribed wisdom-fist Vairocana known in all of East Asia, it is a very precious and ground-breaking source for the iconography and style of Buddhist art. The image also shows that by the mid-eighth century the Great Dharani Sutra of Immaculate and Pure Light was placed inside Buddha images, which makes it an important record of the earliest form of the objects enshrined within Korean Buddhist statues.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Sancheong, Gyeongnam

Designation

National Treasure · 국보