Taebongsa Temple Triad Stone Buddha

No documentary records survive concerning the founding of the temple. According to tradition, Myo Yeonhwa of the Sim clan of Cheongsong, mother of the monk who founded Taebongsa Temple, was praying to the mountain spirit for the freedom from illness and long life of her only son — the family's sole heir across three generations — when the mountain spirit appeared to her in a dream, leading her to discover a triad of Buddha images; this is said to be the origin of the Buddhist hall that was built and the temple that was founded as a result. This stone Buddha, thought to date from the Baekje period, is a triad of images carved in relief on a single large fan-shaped mandorla. It had lain damaged and neglected on the eastern slope of Mount Taebongsan until Taebongsa Temple was built on this spot to preserve it. The triad shows the principal Buddha attended on either side by two bodhisattvas: on the left, a bodhisattva with palms joined, holding a kundika (a ritual water vessel); on the right, a bodhisattva in the form of a child-attendant, holding a lotus branch. The principal Buddha sits cross-legged on a square pedestal, its left hand lowered to rest on the abdomen and its right hand raised to the chest in an unusual gesture, giving the figure a composed, dignified expression.

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Where it is

Region

Iksan, Jeonbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산