Amitabha Gupumdo Painting of Beomnyunsa Temple, Tongyeong

A gupumdo is a painting depicting the nine grades attained upon rebirth in the Pure Land. The Gupumdo of Beomnyunsa Temple departs from the conventional style of late-Joseon gupumdo paintings and presents a newly devised composition. In an upper-middle-lower, three-tier arrangement, it illustrates the scenes of gupumwangsaeng, the doctrine that divides all sentient beings into three grades, upper, middle and lower, each of which is further divided into upper, middle and lower rebirth, making nine categories in all, each with its own way of being reborn in the Pure Land; clouds painted around the edges of the four panels show that the setting is the Pure Land. Against a background of the Daegwangmyeongjeon Hall, apparently drawn as if viewed down from above the roof, the triad of Amitabha in the centre, Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva on the right, and Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva on the left sit on lotus thrones. Below the triad is depicted rebirth into the Nine-Grade Lotus Pond, a pond found within Buddhist temple precincts, showing auspicious light emanating from the fingers of the Amitabha triad, by which beings are reborn into the upper, middle and lower grades of the Pure Land.

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Where it is

Region

Tongyeong, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산