Seated Damyang Hoguksa Wooden Amitabha Buddha

This wooden seated Amitabha Buddha of the late Joseon period is held at Hoguksa Temple in Damyang. A votive text (28.5 cm × 131 cm) discovered among the sacred objects inside the statue in February 2005 shows that an Amitabha image was made and enshrined on 15 May 1660 at Hoejeogam Hermitage on Yonggusan Mountain in Damyang. The statue's iconography shows densely packed snail-shell curls (nabal) with a clearly defined upper and lower cranial protuberance (gyeju). The face is squarish but narrows slightly at the chin; a protruding urna (baekho) sits at the centre of the forehead, and the features are relatively distinct, with sharp, slender eyebrows, eyes set in a straight line looking slightly downward and forward, a blunt nose, and realistically rendered lips. Three curved lines (samdo) mark the neck, and the robe covers both shoulders (tonggyeon), though a single layer of undergarment is draped over the right shoulder. At the centre of the chest the robe falls in a deep U-shaped fold, with a lotus-patterned sash of the inner garment draping to either side at the chest. The legs are crossed in full lotus position with the right foot resting over the left, in the auspicious posture (gilsangjwa). Both wrists are lowered to knee level, the right hand turned palm down and the left palm up, approximating the mudra for middle-grade, middle-rebirth rank (jungpum-jungsaengin). Stylistic features — the serene expression, the relatively realistic rendering of the facial features, and the leaf-shaped lotus folds preserved at the left knee — point to a connection with early Joseon Buddhist statues. The wooden seated Amitabha Buddha of Hoguksa Temple can be dated with certainty to 1660, in the late Joseon period, and the sculptor-monks who made it, Eunghye and Haegi, are also known, making it a work whose date and maker are both firmly established. It also provides an important benchmark for the stylistic features of wooden Buddhist statues of the late 17th century. The carving is neat and well composed, though the statue is relatively modest in scale.

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Where it is

Region

Damyang, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료