Hanging Painting of Chukseosa Temple

A gwaebultaeng is a large Buddhist painting that temples hang in the courtyard in front of the main hall for great ceremonies and rites. This hanging painting at Chukseosa Temple is painted in colour on ramie cloth, in the single-image format: a standing Buddha facing forward fills the entire picture plane, with transformation buddhas and bodhisattvas arranged around the halo. It is said originally to have been hung and used for worship in the Bogwangjeon Hall, but it is now kept in the Daeungjeon Hall. The main Buddha has a full, rounded face, and the vivid, splendid colours used give the whole painting a bright, cheerful atmosphere. A pouch of consecration deposits attached to the painting was found to contain a huryeongtong, a ritual container of consecrated items, together with two sarira relics, various seeds, four sheets of dharani of four kinds, and one gwaebul wonmun, a votive text recording the painting's production. According to the inscription at the bottom of the painting and this gwaebul wonmun, the painting was made in 1768, the forty-fourth year of King Yeongjo of Joseon, with the participation of ten people including the monk Jeongil. The hanging painting of Chukseosa Temple is in very good condition and is considered an outstanding work, notable for the refined depiction of its figures and patterns and for its splendid yet harmonious use of colour. It is also of great scholarly value, since the consecration pouch yielded, along with relics and other deposited items, a gwaebul wonmun of a kind rarely found in other Buddhist paintings.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Bonghwa, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Treasure · 보물