Pochogol Maitreya Jwa Buddha

This is a large stone seated Buddha of the Goryeo period, 2.4 metres in total height and 1.7 metres in height for the figure alone, complete with both pedestal and mandorla. A landslide around twenty years ago damaged the mandorla and pedestal, which have since been repaired. The Buddha has a bare head topped with a square gat, or bogae — a canopy-like cover placed over the head like a hat, derived from the parasol used in India by persons of high rank when going out. Such a bogae did not exist in the Unified Silla period; it is a Goryeo-period feature found mainly on Buddha images in Chungcheong Province and the southern part of Gyeonggi Province. The composition and form of the pedestal, the broad and dignified shoulders, the stable seated posture, the clear and supple technique used in rendering the flow of knots and robe folds, and the fan-shaped drapery folds between the two ankles all continue the Buddha-image style of the late Unified Silla period. However, the square gat/bogae on the head, the strongly blocky rendering of the body, and the technique used for the lotus pattern carved on the pedestal suggest that it should be dated to the early Goryeo period. The right hand rests on the right knee and the left hand, palm upward, rests on the right foot, forming the earth-touching gesture (hangma chokjiin) — the hand posture by which the Buddha calls on the earth god to bear witness to his enlightenment, symbolising the moment of awakening. Some hold the view that this image is the source of the blocky, massive beauty seen in the stone triad at Gaetaesa Temple in Nonsan, made around 936 by royal order of King Taejo of Goryeo; if so, it can be regarded as a work that influenced the formation of a new style of stone Buddha in the early Goryeo period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeoju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산