Unheungsa Temple Cheollyong Buddhist Painting

This painting, called a Cheollyongtaeng (Heavenly Dragon painting) in its inscription, depicts the Cheollyong Palbujung, the eight kinds of beings who protect the Buddhist Dharma: Deva, Naga, Yaksha, Gandharva, Asura, Garuda, Kinnara and Mahoraga. In Buddhist art these eight beings appear in various forms of Sinjung (guardian-deity) paintings, or as attendant figures within paintings such as the Yeongsanhoesangdo. Sinjung paintings take several forms: the Jeseokdo, depicting Indra (Jeseokcheon) and his retinue; the Cheollyongdo, depicting the eight guardian beings; and combined types such as the Jeseok-Cheollyongdo, the Jeseok-Beomcheondo, and the Jeseok-Beomcheon-Cheollyongdo. Among these, the Cheollyongdo, as in this painting, commonly depicts the eight guardian beings together with Witaecheon — often called Dongjin Bosal, the "ever-youthful bodhisattva" — and is sometimes enshrined as a pair with the Jeseokdo. The usual iconography of the Cheollyongdo places Witaecheon, shown in armour and a feathered helmet, at the centre of the composition, with the eight guardian beings arranged around or beneath him. In this painting, however, Witaecheon is shown relatively small in the upper part of the scene while the eight guardian beings are given far greater prominence, a distinctive composition that reflects a stage before Witaecheon became fixed as the principal deity of Cheollyong paintings. At the centre of the painting stands the Dragon King, covered in a white beard and holding a dragon horn. To his left stands a Gandharva wearing a lion crown, and to the Dragon King's right stands another Gandharva with bird wings, facing outward. Various other armed figures, whose exact identities cannot be determined, also appear, showing that the eight guardian beings, including the Dragon King, are represented as a group. In the foreground, Ilgungcheonja, the Heavenly Son of the Solar Palace, wearing a crown bearing the sun and moon, hands a scroll of scripture to a heavenly king whose red hair rises upward. Three child attendants are placed at the lower left and right corners of the painting and beside Witaecheon at the top. Witaecheon, the most important deity in this painting, is shown in the upper right, surrounded by flames, wearing a feathered helmet and armour, with a rod laid across his folded arms. To his left, within a red-bordered cartouche, is written his alternative name, Dongjin Bo-an Bosal. Further to the left is a verse reading: "The eight kinds of heavenly dragons fill the whole of empty space, dwelling even within a single beam of fine light; they ever trust in and uphold the Buddha's word, forever guarding and upholding the scriptures so that they flow on unbroken." This shows that, from the mid-eighteenth century onward, Witaecheon, in his role as guardian of the scriptures, had become an important figure in Sinjung paintings. At the lower edge of the painting is a votive inscription recording that it was painted in 1755, the 31st year of King Yeongjo, by the monk-painters Cheonbung and Haecheon.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Pyeongchang, Gangwon

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산