경주 표암 마애선각화에 대한 고찰

Abstract

This paper primarily focuses on the issue of authenticity, dating and the characteristics of the Buddhist images on the rock cliff of Pyoam situated in Gyeongju. The site had been covered with plants and trees for some 100 years as revealed from the photographs of the area taken in 1920, and they were finally discovered in April 2011. The images include the Buddha enshrined in a Buddhist hall, pagoda, flagpole and monks. The depiction of the flagpole on which a flag is hoisted, in particular, is a rare, if not only, visual reference that is regarded highly valuable in the academia of Korean Buddhist art. Based on the study of similar examples dating to Silla, the rock cliff images of Pyoam are conjecture to have been produced as a result of popular beliefs among the common people. The rock cliff Buddhist images of Pyoam characteristically present the esteemed objects of faith in the secular world as oppose to the paradisiacal world of the Buddha and bodhisattvas portrayed in most of Buddhist sculptures. This difference alludes to the fact that the images of Pyoam were not made for a devotional purpose. Instead, the presence of the flag hung on a flagpole and the monks can be understood as the features suggesting the scene of a certain Buddhist ritual. Precisely, the ritual would relate to the service specifically for the departed souls considering its deciphered inscription and in association with the distribution of tomb sites in the Pyoam area. It is difficult to speculate the precise date of the rock cliff Buddhist images of Pyoam based on the stylistic features since they are crudely delineated only with simple lines. However, we can draw attention to the depiction of the owl’s-tail tile attached to the ends of the main roof ridge of the Buddhist hall. After the Goryeo period, the ridge-end ornamental tile of Buddhist architecture develops to have the shape of a dragon’s head or Makara (or a water monster). Moreover, the ritual of hanging flags also had been widely practiced from the Three Kingdoms to the Goryeo period. Given these two aspects, I propose that the rock cliff Buddhist images of Pyoam would date sometime prior to Goryeo.