Seven Stars Painting of Cheongnyeonam Hermitage, Suwon

A Seven Stars Painting (chilseongdo) is a Buddhist painting depicting the Seven Stars (the Big Dipper), accepted as deities protecting the Buddhist Dharma, personified in human form. Originally, Buddhism regarded the Seven Stars deity merely as one among a host of guardian spirits, portraying it only within paintings of the assembled guardian deities (sinjung taenghwa); but as devotion to the Seven Stars grew stronger, a separate Seven Stars painting emerged and the cult took on an independent form. Seven Stars paintings came to be widely enshrined because Chiseonggwang Yeorae, the principal buddha of the Seven Stars, performed the same role as the Buddha of Medicine. They won great popularity among wives who had no children, wives who wished to bear a son, and devotees praying for their children's long life. In the Cheongnyeonam Seven Stars Painting, the Bodhisattvas of Sun Light and Moon Light attend the principal buddha as flanking bodhisattvas; an inscription at the bottom reveals that it was painted four years before the Amitabha Assembly Painting.

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Where it is

Region

Suwon, Gyeonggi

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료