Muan Bowl Sanmaeul Village Maitreya Dangsan

Balsan Village, in Haeje-myeon, Muan County, South Jeolla Province, is a farming village centred on the broad reclaimed plain to its west. In the Muan region, village guardian rites (dangsanje) are usually held before a sacred old tree, a seondol (an upright guardian stone), or a shrine building, but in Balsan Village the focus of worship is a pair of dangsan stones carved in the form of jangseung guardian posts. The two stone figures are known by various names — Dangsan Grandfather and Grandmother, Maitreya, Dangsan, Dangsan Maitreya — and stand 150 metres apart. The Dangsan Grandfather has a thick, long beard running from chin to chest, and wears a cap resembling a felt hat. Because of severe weathering and the coarse grain of the stone, the detailed carving technique can no longer be made out. The elongated face is outlined only in thin lines, giving it little sense of volume. The ears hang down as far as the shoulders, a feature reminiscent of Buddhist images. The body, too, is rendered with only simple lines indicating the folds of clothing, giving it a less realistic appearance. The Dangsan Grandmother is a plain, unworked standing stone with no distinguishing carved features. It is notable that while the Dangsan Grandmother retains the form of an early, unworked standing stone, the Dangsan Grandfather has taken on the form of a carved, symbolic figure. This makes it a good example of the process by which an object of worship embodied in a natural standing stone gradually changed into a symbolic standing stone shaped like a phallus.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Muan, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료