Seated Bokcheonsa Temple Stone Shakyamuni Buddha and Bodhisattva

Originally, Bokcheonsa Temple housed five sacred images: a seated Shakyamuni Buddha, and the bodhisattvas Manjusri, Samantabhadra, Avalokitesvara and Kshitigarbha. However, in the early 1970s the Avalokitesvara, Kshitigarbha and Manjusri images were stolen, and only the seated Shakyamuni Buddha, the seated Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, and the lion-shaped pedestal that had served as the base for the Manjusri Bodhisattva statue remain today. An inscription on the base of the seated Shakyamuni Buddha and the seated Samantabhadra Bodhisattva reveals that these images were made in 1922 by the monk Wanho. Wanho is known to have taken up the post of abbot of Bokcheonsa Temple in 1921, where he built the temple halls and had the Buddhist statues and paintings to be enshrined within them made. Stylistically, these statues are based on the seventeenth-century style seen in the stone Shakyamuni triad of the Daeungjeon Hall at Beomeosa Temple, made in 1661, the eighteenth year of the Shunzhi reign, with the monk-sculptor Huijang, active 1639–1661, as chief sculptor. However, the Bokcheonsa statues show a softer modelling of the face and more flowing drapery folds, and the ring-shaped metal halo attached to the back shows a modern element, so that they clearly convey the tradition of Buddhist sculpture carried on from the late Joseon period into the twentieth century. In particular, the ring-shaped head halo, separately cast in metal and fitted onto the Buddha and bodhisattva images, is an element that had been popular since the sculpture of Japan's late Heian period, and it is interesting that such a foreign element was newly adopted in the Bokcheonsa statues. The seated stone Shakyamuni Buddha and Bodhisattva of Bokcheonsa Temple are of great heritage value, as their exact date of production, 1922, is known, and they are works by the monk Wanho, who marked an epoch in modern Buddhist sculpture. Moreover, at a time when research into modern Buddhist sculpture remains limited, the Bokcheonsa statues are not only a benchmark work indicating trends in modern Buddhist statuary but also, as a precisely dated work, of considerable value as material for art-historical study.

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Where it is

Region

Yeongdo-gu, Busan

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료