해남 대흥사의 천불 조성과 그 시주자들

Abstract

The construction of the Hall of Thousand Buddha and the creation of the Thousand Buddha statues in the Haenam Daeheung Temple in the early 19th century have an important significance since the creation process shows the temple's pretensions to be the head monastery of the Zen Buddhism and Buddhist education in the late Joseon Korea. The recent discovery of the Record of the Creation of the Thousand Buddha Statues and the complications surrounding the creation project also enable ones to understand the Daeheung Temple's status in the 19th century. As the Pyochung Shrine, in which Cheongheo Hyujeong's portrait was enshrined, was authorized by the government in the late 18th century, the temple acquired its status as the official host of the memorial rituals for the priest. Envoys were dispatched from the government for the rituals on behalf of the Kings. Cheongheo Hyujeong was an elder priest who devoted himself to depend his country from the 1592 Invasion of Hideyoshi by leading the patriotic priest soldiers and rendered the most meritorious services. After the war, the priests from the Cheongheo School, ones who succeeded Cheongheo's religious tradition, became the majority of the Buddhist society at the time. The authorization of the Pyochung Shrine presented the temple with a pride of the chief monastery of the Cheongheo School and of the head temple in the Joseon Buddhist society. However, when many buildings of the temple were burnt in a fire in 1811, the temple's monks became determined to reassure its status by restoring their monastery. The construction of the Hall of Thousand Buddha and the creation of the Thousand Buddha statues were a part of the rebuilding project. They erected the hall before the creation of the Thousand Buddha statues, which was conducted in Kyeongju. When the production was completed, they shipped the 768 statues to Haenam. But the big carrier drifted to Japan due to a typhoon. Fortunately, after 8 months, the ship could get to its original destination and those statues could be enshrined in the temple as well. The names of the donors of the expenses for the creation project from all around the country were recorded by the temple's priests and the list has recently been discovered. Under the names of the 1006 Buddhist statues, 680 monks from 54 temples including 42 buddhist nuns and 676 secular patrons had there names in the list. When one considers the fact that more than a thousand donors from all around the country joined the project, it is possible to understand the status of the temple and the custom of Buddhist patronage at the time.