Stone Buddha Statues of Simjeokjeongsa Temple, Sancheong

Simjeoksa Temple originally stood at Nae-ri in Sancheong-eup and is said to have been founded in 929, the third year of King Gyeongsun, at the very end of the Unified Silla period, though nothing further is known of its founder or later history. The stone Buddha statues housed here originally belonged to that temple. When it burned down during the Korean War, the monk Dongbong temporarily enshrined the statues in Dongnyonggul Cave on Sambongsan Mountain. After Simjeokjeongsa Temple was rebuilt in the Jirisan area and Nahanjeon Hall was built there, the statues were brought back and enshrined once again. There were originally twenty-two statues, one of which is said to have been lost during the Korean War. The remaining twenty-one — the principal image of Sakyamuni Buddha together with the Sixteen Arhats and others — all appear to have been made in the early Joseon period. Nahanjeon Hall is also known as Eungjinjeon Hall. The focus of devotion here is not so much the principal Buddha, Sakyamuni, as his disciples, the Sixteen Arhats: among the countless arhats who had completed their spiritual training and attained the rank of sage, these sixteen vowed, after the Buddha's death and entry into nirvana, to help ordinary beings attain merit and blessing and to guide them along the true Dharma. Owing to their long history of miracle tales, they came to be widely revered among the people as objects of Arhat devotion.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Sancheong, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산