Standing Icheon Eoseok-ri Stone Buddha

This stone Buddha, about 5 metres tall, stands amid houses in the middle of Eoseok 2-ri village, Icheon. It well exemplifies the large stone Buddha images that were popular in Chungcheong-do and southern Gyeonggi-do in the early Goryeo period. The body is like a flat, rectangular stone pillar, and on the head is placed an octagonal bogae, a canopy modelled on the parasol used by nobles in India when going out, set over the Buddha's head like a hat. The face, rounded at the base, has long eyes beneath large eyebrows, an endearing nose with round nostrils, and an extremely small mouth, with a curved line carved beneath to suggest a double chin. The thick ears, pierced at the lobes, hang down long to the shoulders, and the neck bears a simplified rendering of the three folds, or samdo. The two arms are held close to the body, the right hand placed at the chest and the left hand at the abdomen. The robe covering both shoulders envelops the whole body and flows down to the feet; from chest to knees, U-shaped folds are carved in tiers beneath an inverted Ω-shaped fold. The two feet, exposed beneath the semicircular, stylised hem, are also carved in a rough, unrefined manner. While the overall impression is round and soft, its unconventional features and simplified, unrefined carving technique suggest that it belongs to the lineage of localised Buddha images produced in Goryeo-period Icheon and Anseong. Apart from the treatment of the drapery, the Eoseok-ri Buddha resembles the Standing Stone Buddha of Mireuk-ri, Chungju, in that it wears an octagonal canopy on its head and is roughly carved from several stone blocks.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Icheon, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산