Standing Cheonan Seongbulsa Temple Rock-carved Shakyamuni Triad 16 Arhat Statues and Buddha

Seongbulsa Temple (a Cultural Heritage Material) in Anseo-dong, Cheonan, is said to have been founded in the fourth year of King Taejo of Goryeo by Yeongi Doseon, or alternatively by State Preceptor Hyeseon or Great Master Hyejo during the reign of King Taejo of Goryeo, though this is not certain. On both sides of a box-shaped boulder standing prominently at the foot of the hill behind the Daeungjeon Hall, rock-carved Buddhist images have been cut. On the front face of the rock (facing the rear of the main hall) is a standing Buddha whose form can barely be made out, while on the right side a Shakyamuni Triad and sixteen Arhats are each carved in relief. The standing Buddha, though carved in high relief, has lost much of its face and the front of its body to cracking and weathering of the rock, leaving only the outline visible. The faintly remaining ushnisha (cranial protrusion), the form of the hands, and the folds of the robe follow the Buddhist sculptural style of the Goryeo period. Below the hem of the robe, which flares outward at the bottom, the right foot, with its toes clearly rendered, survives distinctly, but the left foot has broken away. In the centre of the lower right side of the rock is a large lotus pedestal, flanked by two offering figures (or guardian figures). On a small lotus pedestal set atop the large one, a principal Buddha presumed to be Shakyamuni sits in the lotus position, making the gesture of preaching the Dharma, with the right shoulder bared. The large head, without a distinct ushnisha, has a broad, round face with large eyes and mouth. The standing bodhisattva attendants on either side and the sixteen Arhats are so worn that their individual styles and features can no longer be made out, but they are shown in a great variety of free and lively poses – facing one another, meditating, and so on – and the rock around each Arhat has been hollowed into a round niche, so that each figure appears to sit within a shrine or cave. The Buddhist images at Seongbulsa Temple, carving a Shakyamuni Triad and sixteen Arhats in relief on a single rock face, are almost unique in Korea; the only comparable example is a 14th-century "Shakyamuni Triad and Sixteen Arhats" painting held in the Hoam Art Museum among Goryeo Buddhist paintings. This painting and the rock-carved "Shakyamuni Triad and Sixteen Arhats" at Seongbulsa Temple share common features in subject and in composition – a Shakyamuni Triad, sixteen Arhats, and two offering figures – and, since they retain iconography seen in 14th-century paintings while being not yet highly schematised, the carvings are presumed to date from the 14th to 15th century.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Cheonan, Chungnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산