Standing Hwasun Daeri Stone Buddha

This stone Buddha was carved from a natural stone close in shape to a stone pillar, roughly dressed into a rectangular form; only the face was carved in high relief, while the body below the chin was rendered in incised-line (seon-gak) carving. Examination of the surrounding terrain reveals no building site or similar remains that would suggest a former temple site. However, on flat land about 500 m to the east stands Hakseojeong Pavilion, associated with the birth legend of National Preceptor Jingak (the second of the sixteen national preceptors of Songgwangsa Temple), who was a native of this area. The Buddha's face is close to rectangular in shape; there is no ushnisha (the cranial protuberance, yukgye) and no samdo, the three creased lines usually carved on the neck. The eyebrows and eyes are sharply carved, the nose is broad in the manner seen on jangseung guardian posts, and the mouth is drawn as a straight, arc-shaped line. The chin and neck are not distinguished from one another, and the neck connects directly to the shoulders; this technique is a style commonly found on stone jangseung guardian posts of the late Joseon period. The drapery folds are highly stylised, and the figure holds its right hand in front of its chest while the left hand is lowered below the abdomen, holding a lotus flower. In terms of its iconographic features, this stone figure is a bodhisattva. Holding a lotus in its hands suggests it could be Avalokiteshvara (Gwanseeum Bosal), but as it lacks a crown this is not certain. The omission of the ushnisha and the bare, unadorned head also raise the possibility that it depicts Ksitigarbha (Jijang Bosal). Moreover, the site where this stone Buddha stands was once a busy junction on the road passing through Boseong and Hwasun, and its significance lies in the fact that it allowed passers-by to easily encounter, at the roadside, a Buddha image normally found only within temples; it thus came to be called a minbul (folk Buddha), an image to which people prayed for personal good fortune and the well-being of the village. This can be regarded as an example of the fusion of Buddhism and folk belief in the late Joseon period. The Standing Hwasun Daeri Stone Buddha is a late Joseon-period (eighteenth-to-nineteenth-century) stone Buddha connected with folk belief, and it has academic and historical value for the way it illustrates the fusion of Buddhist culture and faith with folk belief.

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Where it is

Region

Hwasun, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료