Buddhist Painting in Palsangjeon Hall of Ssanggyesa Temple (The Eight Great Events)

This Buddhist painting enshrined in Palsangjeon Hall of Ssanggyesa Temple, a Gyeongsangnam-do Tangible Cultural Heritage, is a palsangdo depicting the life of Sakyamuni Buddha divided into eight scenes. The eight scenes are: Dosolnaeuisang, showing Sakyamuni descending from Tusita Heaven riding an elephant to the human world; Birwamgangsaengsang, depicting his birth through the side of Queen Maya in Lumbini Garden; Samunyugwansang, the scene in which the young prince observes the suffering of beings outside the palace gates and feels the impermanence of life; Yuseongchulgasang, depicting his leaving home to become a monk against his parents' wishes; Seolsansudosang, showing him practising austerities with hermits in the snowy mountains; Suhahangmasang, in which the prince, while practising, overcomes all manner of temptation and threat; Nogwonjeonbeopsang, showing the Buddha preaching for the first time at Deer Park; and Ssangnimyeolbansang, depicting the Buddha's death beneath the twin sala trees. This palsangdo consists of eight panels in total. Each panel's scene is set apart using buildings, clouds, trees and mountains, and an explanatory inscription accompanies each scene, making the painting easy to follow. Notably, the trees that appear in every scene are rendered not schematically but naturally and realistically, much like trees in general painting. At the bottom of each panel is written a record of the painting's history; from this it is known that the work was produced in the sixth year of the Chinese Yongzheng reign, that is, in 1728, by eight monk-painters: Ilseon, Hugyeong, Myeongjeong, Choeu, Wonmin, Cheoyeong, Sinyeong and Yeongho. Each of the eight panel-format scenes has a simple composition focusing only on the main content, and when the overall composition is compared with the Palsangdo of Songgwangsa Temple, Suncheon, painted in 1725, the two show almost identical iconography differing only slightly in colour, suggesting they were painted from the same underlying model. Among surviving Sakyamuni palsangdo, it ranks among the earlier works, coming after the Palsangtaeng of Yongmunsa Temple, Yecheon, of 1709, and it also shows corresponding stylistic features such as a sense of spatial depth and harmonious colour. The generous placement of scenic elements, together with the natural and realistic depiction of trees seen in general painting, is also often found in palsangdo and gamnowangdo of the first half of the eighteenth century, giving the work documentary value in suggesting its relationship with contemporary or earlier general painting.

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Where it is

Region

Hadong, Gyeongnam

Designation

Treasure · 보물