Beopjusa Temple Bokcheonam Hermitage Seated Wooden Amitabha Buddha Triad, Boeun

This is a triad of Amitabha Buddha with the bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara (Gwaneum) and Mahasthamaprapta (Daeseji), enshrined as the main image of Geungnakjeon Hall at Bokcheonam Hermitage. After the hall was destroyed by fire in 1733, these statues were made together with the rebuilt hall during its reconstruction between 1735 and 1737. The votive text placed inside the statues at their consecration (bokjang balwonmun), dated 1737 (the second year of the Qianlong era), could not be found when the statues were surveyed — it may have been reinstalled inside the image — but it is recorded in the Temple Gazetteer (Chungcheongbuk-do, 1982, p.254) and can be consulted there. According to its contents, the sculptor-monks (jogakjang) who made the statues were Yeon-gi, Du-chaek, Su-seong, Cho-bung, Su-gyeon and Gwang-bung, among others. It is an Amitabha triad in which the seated Amitabha Buddha is the principal image, flanked on the left by the seated Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and on the right by the seated Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva, each enshrined on a three-tiered lotus pedestal with a square middle section. The principal image forms the hapumjungsaeng-in mudra (the gesture for the lowest grade of rebirth), with a fleshy face, a notably small nose, and full cheeks and chin giving a gentle, benign expression. The robe is worn in a modified style wrapping around the right shoulder (a variant of the "bare right shoulder" pyeondan-ugyeon manner), the collar of the inner vest (pyeonsam) arranged symmetrically with the outer robe; at the chest the gathered upper edge of the horizontally worn undergarment is visible. The upper body is somewhat elongated, but the shoulders are narrow and drawn in; the body has a moderate sense of volume, and the drapery folds are correspondingly rendered with a moderate coarseness and simplicity. The two attendant bodhisattvas are almost identical in appearance, differing only in that the hands holding lotus stems are mirrored left and right. They wear tall crowns, each bearing either a small Buddha image (hwabul) or a water bottle (jeongbyeong), distinguishing Avalokiteshvara from Mahasthamaprapta; unusually, a water bottle is also attached to the lotus stem held by Avalokiteshvara. Beneath the crowns the hair is bound up high, then wound around the ears with a few strands falling over the shoulders. Unlike the principal image, the bodhisattvas' faces have less flesh at the jaw, giving a slender, neat appearance, and their smaller bodies wear robes in the same style as the Buddha's. The pedestals of the three figures differ only slightly in size and are otherwise almost identical: the upper and lower lotus-petal tiers have a rounded volume, and the front of the square middle section bears an elaborately carved scrolling foliage (dangcho) pattern within a horizontally elongated ansang panel. According to the Bokcheonam Hermitage temple chronicle, the Amitabha Buddha enshrined in Geungnakbojeon Hall was made in 1737 (the second year of the Qianlong era) by the monks Du-chaek, Cho-bung, Su-gyeon and Gwang-bung, among others. With its robe covering both shoulders (tonggyeon) and its simplified, formulaic drapery lines, it well expresses the style of 18th-century Buddhist statuary, and its production record survives in good condition.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Boeun, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산