Munsusa Temple Buddhist Painting

A taenghwa is a type of Buddhist painting hung in a temple's main hall or other buildings for veneration. Three heritage-designated Munsusa Temple taenghwa survive: a painting of the assembly behind Shakyamuni, a Ksitigarbha painting, and a Chilseong (Seven Stars) painting. All three are currently held on deposit at the Tongdosa Temple Seongbo Museum. Painting of the Assembly behind Shakyamuni (made in the late Joseon period, 178 cm x 180 cm): painted in colour on cotton as a single panel in 1861, it depicts a large, frontally facing figure of the Buddha Shakyamuni forming the mudra of preaching the Dharma, set against a boat-shaped halo. Below, on either side of a rectangular, cloth-draped pedestal, the bodhisattvas Munsu (Manjushri) and Bohyeon (Samantabhadra), each holding a lotus flower, are placed as attendant figures. Ksitigarbha Painting (made in 1893, 154 cm x 114.5 cm): painted in colour on cotton as a single panel in the late Joseon period, it depicts a large, frontally facing figure of the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, seated in the full lotus position on a lotus pedestal set on a cloth-draped rectangular base, holding a jewel in one hand. Below, at the centre in front of the pedestal, stand child attendants holding a monk's staff (seokjang) and a water bottle (jeongbyeong) respectively; on either side are the attendant figures Mudokgwiwang and Domyeong Jonja, flanked further by the Ten Kings of the underworld, with judges, clerks, messengers and heavenly boy and girl attendants arranged above. The colouring contrasts red and blue, and the patterns and brushwork are very delicate. Chilseong Painting (made in 1855, 136.5 cm x 102.5 cm): painted in colour on silk in the late Joseon period, made by joining four panels of silk. The composition is symmetrical in three tiers, centred on a halo behind the Buddha of the Pole Star and his two attendant bodhisattvas, with the Seven Star Buddhas above, the assembled star deities in the middle, and the Three Terraces and Six Stars and the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions below, depicting fifty-four sacred figures in all.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Ulju, Ulsan

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산