Rare, Korean Monastic Painting of Amitabha with Gold Highlights

This large painting on plain weave fabric would have been commissioned for display in the main prayer hall of a monastery.

The painting is mostly in bright red, plus cream, green, black and with ample gold highlights. There is an exterior border painted in blue. The fabric, at the time of commission, has been attached to a thick paper backing.

The likely subject of the painting is the Amitabha Buddha as the main, central figure. Two protector deities are on either side of Amitabha. Two attendants appear on either side of Amitabha’s head, probably Kasyapa, who holds a manuscript and a younger one, Ananda. The other ten figures (five on each side) might be the Ten Kings of Hell, in which case the central figure might not be the Amitabha Buddha but Chichang Bosal (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva), a bodhisattva who is believed to intercede on behalf of people condemned to the torments of hell. (See an example.) However, usually when the Ten Kings of Hell are shown, then demons also are depicted.

As with Korean practice in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Amitabha is shown with a moustache and small goatee both of which are in green paint, along with the hair. The figure on the lower right is similarly depicted.

There is a block of text at the centre of the painting’s lower edge. The inscription is in an early version of Chinese rather than Hangul, the Korean script. However, the reverse is marked with Hangul letters, perhaps to allow the scroll to be identified when rolled up. Chinese often was used for religious works in preference to Hangul, perhaps because it was thought to be closer to the ‘true’ language of Buddhism. The inscription includes a date but uses the traditional Chinese cycle of naming years and so the dating is somewhat ambiguous but is likely to the equivalent of either 1800 or 1860.

In Korea, Buddhist monasteries promoted the communal nature of worship. Monks together with the laity chanted sutras and placed ceremonial offerings before religious images. Large scale, brightly-coloured paintings such as the example here became a common feature in worship halls during the Joseon (Chosun) Dynasty, on account of the communal nature of these halls.

The inscription on the painting here approximates as the following:

施主 (donor)

庚申十月二十三日般若精寺 the tenth month (using the Chinese calendar) and the twenty-third day, circa 1740 or 1800, at Temple 般若精寺 (the name is in Chinese, but does not accord readily with a known Korean temple or monastery)

住持比丘青巖堂青岩 (provides the name and position of an abbot monk from a particular temple/monastery 青巖堂)

供予 徐園滿藏 (dedicated to the treasury of 徐園滿)

代主 李曼殊行 (an enshrined deity with outstanding moral standards)

奉茶 觧智 (gives a personal name and then the position of tea presenter)

院主 觧蓮 (gives a personal name and then the position of dean)

茶角 圓悟 (gives a personal name and then the position of tea ceremony master)

侍者 觧覺 (gives a personal name and then the position of attendant)

鐘頭 解禪 (gives a personal name and then the position of head of the temple bells)

爐殿比丘大盧堂慧祚 (gives a personal name and then the position of monk from a temple/monastery 大盧堂, from Caodong Sect 曹洞宗 of Zen 禪 Buddhist branch and one of the Five Houses of Zen in China)

秉法比丘慧命堂慧命 (gives a personal name and then the position of monk from a temple/monastery 慧命堂, specialising in teaching and leading a life with wisdom as its core principle)

維卻比丘星盧堂琺穆 (gives a personal name and then the position of monk from a temple/monastery 星盧堂)

禪德比丘西盧堂法修 (gives a personal name and then the position of highly accomplished practising monk, by title, from a temple/monastery 西盧堂)

證明比丘斎和堂迦山 (gives a personal name and then the position of monk from a temple/monastery 斎和堂 from Mount Carmel(?) 迦山)

The painting here is bright and the colours have not faded. There is some flaking to the paint, some minor water damage, a small tear at the bottom, and some creasing. But all this is consistent with age and with other extant examples. Overall, it is an impressive painting.

 

Above: Two views of a related type of Korean monastic painting, ‘The Paradise of Amitabha’, Gyeonggi-do, Suguksa Temple, Joeseon Dynasty (1392-1910), dated 1795, on silk. Guimet Museum, Paris.