Inscribed "Dongchi5nyeon" Chilseong Buddhist Painting of Tongdosa Temple, Yangsan

This is a chilseongtaeng preserved at Tongdosa Temple. A chilseongtaeng is a painting that personifies the Seven Stars (chilseong), stars that were adopted into Buddhism as benevolent guardian deities protecting the Dharma. All the paintings in the set are executed in colour on silk and depict the Chiseongwang Yeorae Triad (a triad centred on the Buddha of Blazing Light), Chilseong-do (Seven Stars paintings) and Seonggun-do (Star Lord paintings). The Chiseongwang Yeorae Triad is composed in two registers. In the upper register, against the background of a ten-panel folding screen painted with an ink-and-light-colour landscape, the seated image of the Buddha of Blazing Light occupies the centre, flanked by the bodhisattvas of Sunlight and Moonlight and their attendants standing in waiting. In the lower register is an image of a Star Lord in Chinese-style Taoist robes, wearing a crown and holding a hol (a ceremonial tablet), flanked by attendants standing in waiting. The Chilseong-do paintings comprise the First Star Lord Tamnang of the Big Dipper, the Second Star Lord Geomun of the Big Dipper, the Third Star Lord Nokjon of the Big Dipper, and the Fifth Star Lord Yeomjeong of the Big Dipper, each composed in two registers. In the upper register, surrounded by a landscape-painted screen, sits the image of a Chilseong Buddha, flanked on each side by an attendant holding a hol. In the lower register, an image of a Star Lord in Chinese-style Taoist robes, wearing a crown and holding a hol, sits on a chair at the centre, flanked on each side by an attendant in the guise of a Taoist immortal, also holding a hol. An inscription at the centre of the lower part of the Chiseongwang Yeorae Triad records that the set was made in the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign, that is, 1866. The Dongchi5nyeon Chilseong Painting of Tongdosa Temple originally consisted of nine panels, but three have been lost, leaving only six extant. The paintings are generally in good condition, and their iconography differs from the run of late Joseon chilseongtaeng, which gives them scholarly value.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yangsan, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산