Asiana, Monthly In-flight Magazine - November 2016
Korean Heritage (web site)
At the Korean Stone Art Museum, all of the stones represent not only cultural art of the past but the symbolism of life beliefs as well!
Muninseok – stone figures representing Joseon literary officials. They are attired in official robes and winged hats or golden headgear (depending on statuary) and carrying a hol (an object held by courtiers when granted an audience with the king). These official garments were worn by courtiers when they participated in national occasions like the king’s wedding and in the national rite for worshipping the late kings and queens of the Joseon Dynasty. During the Joseon era, a pair of stone officials was placed in front of a royal burial mound to serve as guardians of the king’s tomb, along with janggunseok and other animal-shaped stone sculptures similarly symbolizing protection of the graves against evil spirits.
Janggunseok – stone statue of military officers equipped with armor, a helmet and swords. Janggunseok and muninseok were placed in the foremost position in front of the grave mound of the king and together with animal-shaped stone sculptures they guarded the king against evil spirits. The demonic faces often engraved on the hilt of their swords and on the guardian’s shoulders represents warding off evil spirits and providing protection.
Dongja – “child attendants” were placed at a tomb of a person of exalted social class and were believed to serve as messengers of the gods. Therefore, these messengers each held or carried wish symbols—e.g. lotus flowers for prosperity and longevity, a bat symbolizing happiness and fertility, a fan for warding off evil spirits and bringing good fortune. Prayers to the dongja were believed to be realized.
Inside is a Hill of Prayers with a collection of dongja, each having a representative symbolic message
Outside is another dongja collection, with each dongja playing or participating in some mode of daily life—e.g. holding traditional instruments, holding kitchen utensils or playing traditional games. These instrument carvings are also seen on beoksu.
Dongjaseok (not to be confused with dongja, the child attendant) is the stone figure of the dongja. Found in and around Seoul, these sculptures were placed before the graves of high-ranking government officials or members of the royal family, except of high-ranking kings and queens, during the 16th – 18th centuries. Wearing plain clothes at times and other times cloaked in heavenly robes and double-knot hairdos, they were believed to connect the world of the deceased with that of the mourners. They stand obediently and submissively in front of the graves.
Dongja were deemed to serve various gods in Taoism, the Buddha in Buddhism, and the occupants of the graves in Confucianism. Therefore, the shape and role of dongja vary from grave guardian to village guardian, depending on the religious thought. The early child attendant images were highly decorative and vibrant as shown by Buddhist works, but they were gradually superseded by simpler and more austere images under the influence of Confucianism. The statues were often combined with muninseok, or stone statutes of civil officials, after the 17th century, resulting in the disappearance of their original characteristic features.
Beoksu – the stone version of the wooden jangseung (yin and yang guardians), which were placed at the entrance of a village as guardians to frighten away demons and ward off evil spirits and illnesses from penetrating the community. Since beoksu were thought to possess superpowers that could bring good fortune and prevent troubles, people prayed to them in the hope of making their wishes come true.
Though beoksu drove away evil spirits, they did not have a scary look, nor did they have a standard appearance. Various forms with candid and often humorous faces reflected people’s traditions and regional beliefs and practices.
Some beoksu held pipes as the pipe is a symbol of tranquility and prosperity. And there is the legend of the manpasikjeok, a pipe from Silla, in which people believed that, once the pipe was played, the country would not experience any conflicts. Similarly, playing the pipe was believed to subside waves, a belief also dating back to the Silla Dynasty. Other beoksu had turtles carved on them; in folk belief and Taoism the turtle symbolizes good health, fertility, and longevity and so is one of the 10 traditional longevity symbols. Others held a crane, another longevity symbol and also with auspicious indications, a sickle symbolizing harvest and abundance. or a sword, the symbol of protection. Others simply had a house carving on them, the nest of prosperity and representing the microcosm. During the later part of the Joseon Dynasty, as the incidence of smallpox worsened every year, people started to have a folk belief that beoksu, a Korean traditional totem post, would keep them away from smallpox. Some beoksu even had the character ho(虎) for tiger carved on them, which embodied the villagers’ wish for good health.
Each house had a carved beoksu, a Korean traditional totem pole, signifying the prosperity of a village community. Beoksu stones are representative of the common people and therefore were more carefree and humorous, and often representative of the character of the regions where they were carved.
Jangmyeongdeung – a stone lantern was placed to light up a graveyard. Its spiritual function for the deceased was to pray for eternal life and enlightenment in the heaven. According to Joseon dynasty (1392 – 1910) law, only high-ranking officials were allowed to place the lantern at their grave mounds. Symbols appear on the sides, e.g. a bat symbolizing happiness and fertility, a cloud for immortality and abundance.
Mangjuseok – stone pillars placed on each side of a grave
Hamabi – dismount markers. Markers such as this one, which commanded “all officials to dismount from their horses” as a show of respect, were placed at the entrance to a palace or the royal ancestral shrine of Joseon Dynasty. Depending on their rank, officials were required to dismount at a specific number of paces before the entrance, e.g. senior officials were required to dismount 10 steps before it, mid-ranking officials 20 steps, and low-ranking officials 30 steps.
Prayer for rain stone – a dragon-engraved stonework used in rain rituals. As dragons were symbolically portrayed as the “god of water” in many Eastern cultures, precipitation rituals were held in the presence of a dragon-engraved stonework or in front of a dragon-shaped rock or well.
Stone Buddha – the statue of Buddha made by civilians showing austere and natural beauty
Deva King (Vajradhara) – one of the guardian deities in Buddhism, usually positioned to the left and right of temple gates to repulse evil spirits
Picture Credits:
While I took many pictures while at the Korean Stone Art Museum, I didn't get a representative shot of all of the categories listed above, so to be consistent in providing example pictures, I've only posted picture carefully clipped from the Google Arts & Culture collection for the Korean Stone Art Museum, so all photo credits go to them.
About the collection, it was first launched under the name of the Google Art Project on 1 February 2011, with the goal of collecting high-resolution images of artworks housed in partner museums around the world and creating a cyber platform with "walk through" features, providing information on galleries and artworks. By April 2012 the art project platform had signed agreements with 151 museums in 40 countries, and in 2016 the Korean Stone Art Museum was added to the online digital collection. As of the end of December 2018, 45 museums in Korea have had representative collections digitalized and posted on the Google Arts & Culture collection, the revised name the Google Art Project. The Korean Stone Art Museum is one of these 45!
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