Standing Gilt-bronze Crown Eum Bodhisattva of Geumgangsa Temple, Gumi

This statue was retrieved from the site of a ruined temple by Seon master Cheorwu, founder of Geumgangsa Temple, together with a stone seated Buddha and a standing gilt-bronze Bhaisajyaguru (Medicine Buddha), while he was practising at Geumgangsan Mountain; it has been enshrined at the present-day Geumgangsa Temple since 1952. The statue is 30 cm tall, with a shoulder width of 11 cm; the pedestal is 5.5 cm high and 12 cm in diameter. The face is close to rectangular but very full and rounded, and the head is unusually large, about one-third the size of the body. An ornate crown decorates the head, at the centre of which is a single transformation Buddha figure (hwabul). The three-fold lines of the neck are rendered as two raised ridges, and the neck and chest are adorned with an elaborate chest ornament. The lotus petals making up the lotus pedestal number ten, with none carved at the rear centre. A distinctive feature of this bodhisattva is the basket held in its right hand containing a fish, a motif for which parallels are hard to find. The garments are also densely patterned with fish-character motifs (eojamun). The statue is estimated to date from the tenth to eleventh century and is valued as important material for the study of gilt-bronze Buddhist statues of the Goryeo period.

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Where it is

Region

Gumi, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산