Anseong Beopgyesa Temple Hwajangchalhaedo Painting

The Hwajangchalhaedo (a painting of the Lotus Treasury World, the vast ocean-like Buddhist cosmos) enshrined in the Daeungjeon Hall of Beopgyesa Temple was brought here from Cheongnyongsa Temple in Anseong after the Daeungjeon Hall was built in the 1970s. It takes the form of a horizontal scroll measuring 241.5 cm wide by 162 cm high, and an inscription on the painting records that it was painted in 1911. The Beopgyesa Hwajangchalhaedo is bordered by eleven concentric circles running from the outer edge inward, depicting the eleven wind wheels said to support the Lotus Treasury World. Within these lies a band of swirling fragrant-water seas and great lotus flowers, which in turn support the Lotus Treasury World, the pure land of the Buddha Vairocana. Inside the great lotus flower is a ring of mountains called Geumgangnyunsan (Vajra-wheel Mountains), and from this point inward the "seeds" of the Lotus Treasury World unfold around a single large circle at the centre of the painting. In this central circle and the ten small circles surrounding it, the Buddha Vairocana is shown in the wisdom-fist mudra (jigwon-in), with the small circles radiating outward from the centre. Each of these circles bears the name of a "world seed" taken from the Hwajangsegye-pum, the chapter on the Lotus Treasury World in the Avatamsaka Sutra. Most Buddhist paintings from the first half of the twentieth century have tended to remain in their home region, so the fact that the Hwajangchalhaedo has only recently come to light, together with the evidence it provides that Buddhist-painting monks from the Gyeongsang-do region travelled to paint in Gyeonggi-do in the late Joseon period, make it an important source.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Anseong, Gyeonggi

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료