Dharani Bag with Embroidered Sun and Moon Design

The Dharani Bag with Embroidered Sun and Moon Design is a pair of pouches embroidered with a scene of rebirth from a lotus flower (yeonhwa-hwasaeng), made to hold a dharani, a sacred Buddhist text or chant. The rebirth-from-the-lotus motif likens a believer's rebirth in the Western Paradise to the blooming of a lotus. The two pouches are identical, shaped like lotus-flower lanterns; centred on each pouch is a knot above and, below, three lotus-root-shaped tassels, each hung with three small pendant ornaments (goebul). Embroidered on a green satin (gongdan) ground, the design shows a bodhisattva reborn from a lotus throne, holding in a gesture of prayer a cord linking to a lotus bearing the sun and the moon, representing the heavens. Judging from the characters embroidered on them, one pouch is thought to have been made for a court lady (sanggung) surnamed Kim, whose Buddhist name was Heogonghwa, and the other for a court lady surnamed Ryu, whose Buddhist name was Myojinhwa, both fervently wishing to reach paradise. The design on this pouch, made of light green satin, is divided into three tiers, and at the centre of the fully bloomed lotus are embroidered a three-legged crow and a rabbit, symbolising the sun and the moon. Kim's pouch bears the three-legged crow that symbolises the sun, while Ryu's bears the moon-pounding rabbit that symbolises the moon. Judging from the fact that the two donors embroidered on the pouches share the same birth year, gi-yu, in the sexagenary cycle, and from the donors' birth years recorded on the reverse, the pouches are presumed to date from the mid-nineteenth century.

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Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Folklore Heritage · 국가민속문화유산