The Buddhist Temple and Buddhist Painting of Bogwangsa Temple in Paju in 1898

Abstract

Bogwangsa temple (普光寺) located at the foot of Goryeongsan mountain, Paju city, Gyeonggi province is well-known as the temple dedicated to Soryeongwon(昭寧園), the tomb of Sukbin Ms Choi (淑嬪崔氏, 1670-1718), mother of King Yeongjo(英祖, r. 1724-1776) in late Joseon Dynasty. At the same time, the temple had long been closely related with the royal family of Joseon Dynasty, serving as the temple for royal family members. The year 1898 was one of the important occasions when constructions and repairs of the structures of the temple had been made throughout the history. In 1896, Inpa Yeonghyeon(仁坡 英玄) advised Court Lady Cheon to reconstruct Chwijeon(鷲殿), a building in the temple, leading the court to decide to do that. In 1897, construction began, and, in spring 1898, Empress Eom and Court Lady Hong donated funds to paint the new building of Chwijeon. In addition, distinguished painters in Seoul city and Gyeonggi province were asked to draw Buddhist paintings, and they produced six pieces of Buddhist painting: Samjangbosaldo, Hyeonwangdo, Chilseongdo, Dokseongdo, and Gamrodo in addition to Shakyamuni Preaching at the Vulture Peak. The director of painting works was Inpa Yeonghyeon as in the case of the construction works of Daeungjeon Hall. The Buddhist monk-painters who drew the Buddhist paintings were over 20 painter monks in the Seoul and Gyeonggi region from the late 19th century to the early 20th century including Gyeongseon Eungseok (慶船應釋), Yewun Sanggyu (禮芸尙奎) and Geumhwa Gihyeong (錦華機炯). They had began to know each other before participating in producing Buddhist paintings in Bogwangsa, and, continued to cooperate in producing Buddhist paintings ever since. The Buddhist Services and Buddhist paintings of Paju Bogwangsa in 1898 are important sources to allow us to recognize the power of Bogwangsa temple and how the court supported the works. The Buddhist paintings are precious sources from which we can figure out the characteristics of Buddhist paintings in the Seoul and Gyeonggi region from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, and painting styles of those artists. In addition, those paintings are precious sources from which we can comprehensively examine the times when they were drawn, the places they were devoted, the backgrounds of drawing them, artists who created them, other people who were involved in drawing those paintings with various services, and exchanges among painter monks, etc.