Bokcheonsa Temple Hyeonwang Painting and Votive Objects (set)

A hyeonwangdo is a Buddhist painting centred on Hyeonwang, the deity who presides over the judgement given to the dead three days after death. Hyeonwang is a Buddha-ised form of King Yama, enshrined on a Hyeonwang altar within the Dharma hall; such altars are most often placed in Yaksajeon Hall. This framed painting has, at the centre of its back, a square recess measuring 9.5 cm in height, 12.0 cm in width and 3.0 cm in depth, within which votive objects are enshrined, including a yellow silk wrapping cloth for the huryeongtong, a sacred container placed inside Buddhist images. The votive objects found include the yellow silk wrapping cloth for the huryeongtong; a diagram of the eight-petalled great red lotus drawn on hanji, traditional Korean paper; three sheets of dharani (mantra) paper; a diagram of the nine-character Cundi mantra within a heavenly circle; a diagram of the arrayed vajra directions; a diagram of the seed-syllables of the five elements; five-coloured threads and five treasure bottles with their contents; and five mirrors, comprising umbrella-shaped five-canopy ornaments and double-sided round mirrors, also made of hanji. At the centre of the painting, Hyeonwang is flanked in the foreground, to left and right, by twelve attendant figures standing in symmetrical ranks of six each: magistrates, clerks, messengers and child attendants. The principal figure sits on a chair ornamented with a dragon-head motif, with a desk before him rendered to show the grain of the wood; on the desk lie an inkstone, a brush and a scroll document, with a curtain draped below. The background is formed by a three-panel folding screen, its ground painted yellow, on which an eagle and a pine tree are rendered in pale ink wash with shading picked out in white, a treatment also seen in bird-and-flower paintings of the same period. Although this hyeonwangdo is judged to have been made relatively late, in the modern period, it is well preserved, and the votive objects in particular survive in a comparatively complete state, making it a heritage item of real value for the study of Buddhist painting.

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Where it is

Region

Yeongdo-gu, Busan

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료