Avatamsaka Sutra vol. 40

This manuscript sutra (sagyeong) takes the form of a single accordion-folded book (jeoljeopbon) of 68 folded leaves, each with six lines of seventeen characters, and survives in good condition. The front 32 leaves were written in silver ink on gamji, indigo-dyed mulberry paper, while the rear 36 leaves are written in gold ink on the same paper. It is presumed that the front section was produced first, in silver ink, and that after the rear section was lost the sutra was handed down incomplete until 1728, the fourth year of King Yeongjo, when the missing portion was supplemented and the whole newly compiled as a gold-ink manuscript. Before the text begins, the first two leaves carry a byeonsangdo, an illustrated frontispiece depicting the sutra's content, drawn in gold ink. The composition is divided left and right: on the right, Vairocana Buddha sits cross-legged on a large dais, flanked by five bodhisattvas with palms joined in prayer; on the left, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva holds a ruyi sceptre on a tall, solitary pedestal, with four bodhisattvas seated below, indicating that the scene illustrates the Chapter on the Vows of Samantabhadra. On the third and fourth leaves, following the frontispiece, the silver-ink characters have been overwritten in black ink; whether this was done at the time of the original transcription or added later is unknown. Although made up of two sections produced at different times, the sutra carries a colophon at its end recording the year of transcription and the names of the restorer and copyist, giving it real value as a source for studying Joseon-period sutra transcription.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Seo-gu, Busan

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산