Rock-carved Standing Buddha Triad in Dongmun-ri, Taean

One of the earliest rock carvings in Korea, cut into a fan-shaped face with a square niche worked into it. The usual triad is one Buddha with two bodhisattvas. This one reverses it: two standing Buddhas with a single bodhisattva between them, and no other example is known. The two Buddhas are almost identical — full faces with broad smiles, wide square shoulders, robes falling in U-shaped folds over a Y-necked undergarment, and lotus pedestals whose petals are plump and sharp at once. The bodhisattva is smaller and set back, as though squeezed between them. The tall crown is plain now but was almost certainly decorated. The face is long and rounded and carries a faint smile; the scarf over the shoulders falls to the knees and crosses in an X. Sixth to seventh century, on a coast that was one of the first landfalls of Buddhism arriving by sea from China.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Taean, Chungnam

Designation

National Treasure · 국보