Standing Gumigeumgangsageumdongyaksa Temple Buddha

This Buddha statue was recovered, together with a stone seated Shakyamuni Buddha and a standing gilt-bronze Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, from an abandoned temple site by the Seon master Cheorwu, the founder of Geumgangsa Temple, while he was practising on Geumgangsan Mountain; the images have been enshrined at the present Geumgangsa Temple since 1952. The statue is 47 cm high, with the head measuring 11 cm and the shoulders 12 cm wide; the pedestal is 14 cm high with a diameter of 22 cm. The hair is rendered in snail-shell curls (nabal), and the robe is worn covering both shoulders (tonggyeon). The shoulders appear somewhat narrow in proportion to the comparatively large head, and a U-shaped fold of drapery running from below the chest is notable. The pedestal is formed of six lotus petals arranged in an alternating pattern. The medicine jar held in the left hand is 2.2 cm in diameter and appears to have been cast together with the rest of the statue in a single pour. The interior is hollow, with a wall thickness of 1–2 mm. Holes at the back of the head and on the back of the statue are thought to have been used respectively for attaching a halo and for inserting sacred contents (bokjang) into the image. Small traces of earlier gilding remain on the lower part of the pedestal. The statue is presumed to date from around the ninth century, the late Unified Silla period. It is a rare example of a large gilt-bronze Buddha from the Unified Silla period, and, apart from the missing halo, is preserved in near-perfect condition, making it a valuable resource for the study of Unified Silla gilt-bronze Buddhist sculpture.

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Where it is

Region

Gumi, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산