Inscribed "Hampung11nyeon" Chilseong Buddhist Painting of Tongdosa Temple, Yangsan

This is a chilseongtaeng — a Buddhist painting of the Seven Stars (chilseong), personified as guardian deities of Buddhism — preserved at Tongdosa Temple. It depicts a Chiseonggwang-yeorae Samjondo (a triad centred on the Buddha of the Blazing Light), a Samtae-yukseong Isipparusudo (an image of the Three Terraces, Six Stars and Twenty-Eight Constellations), and a set of Chilseongdo panels. The Chiseonggwang-yeorae Samjondo is painted in colour on cotton cloth: the seated Buddha of the Blazing Light occupies the centre, with the Bodhisattva of Sunlight to his left and the Bodhisattva of Moonlight to his right, each seated on a rising lotus over green-blue cloth. The Samtae-yukseong Isipparusudo is painted in colour on silk: at the bottom centre, the images of the Three Terraces and Six Stars stand around an incense burner set on a table, encircled by wave-like auspicious clouds spreading out like a fan, while above them the images of the Twenty-Eight Constellations, wrapped in cloud patterns, are arranged in two encircling rows. The uppermost background is filled with a sky painted in ink black, over which purple and green cloud patterns are laid. The five panels of the Chilseongdo are all painted in colour on ramie cloth and are very similar to one another in technique: in each, the main deity sits cross-legged on a lotus throne at the centre, with an attendant in green robes standing to its left holding a tablet in both hands. An inscription at the bottom centre of the Chiseonggwang-yeorae Samjondo records that the painting was made in the "eleventh year of Hampung", that is, in 1861. The Hampung 11th Year Chilseongtaeng of Tongdosa Temple originally consisted of nine panels, but two have been lost, leaving only seven surviving. The work is generally well preserved and delicately painted, and is regarded as important material for the study of the iconography of chilseongtaeng enshrined in Chilseong-gak (Seven Stars) shrines in the late Joseon period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yangsan, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산