한국 <毘藍降生相圖>에서의 右手와 左手의 타당성 고찰

Abstract

The birth image of Buddha usually takes the hand gesture of Heaven & Earth Seal. The Heaven & Earth Seal is related with the fact the just born Buddha pointed the heaven and earth with his hands and sang the birth psalm. Among relics, this image is found in Buddha's birth statue and Buddha's birth painting at Lumbinī of 8 phase diagrams. But, in the birth images of China, there is some confusion on the heaven & earth seal. It is about the problem with which hand of right and left hands Buddha pointed the heaven and the earth. The purpose of this paper is to comprehend this confusing problem and to suggest the correct answer for it. In fact, this problem has an important significance in the image washing rite on the birth day of Buddha. The birth image of Buddha has been the objective of the image washing rite. But, the hand seal of the just born Buddha does not still coincide up to now. This has caused no small problem that fundamental rituals are not unified. The ritualism is fairly important in religious art and religious rites. Therefore it is natural to examine the hand seal problem of just born Buddha upon the basis of Buddhist documents. Through this examination, we can secure the recognition that the birth image of Buddha does not coincide with the Heaven & Earth image of Buddha, and that the rise of Heaven & Earth image has close relationship with the specific birth psalm. Moreover, it is shown that Buddha pointed the heaven with his right hand through some documents related with Buddha's birth. But, in most of extant Korean paintings of Buddha's birth at Lumbinī, Buddha is described to point the heaven with his left hand. It means that the discrepancy exists between two traditions. To solve this distortion problem, this paper finally examines the aspects of 'respect on the right in Indian culture zone' and 'respect on the left in Chinese culture zone.'Through the above examinations, it is certified that the right hand validity of Buddhism originated from the Indian culture was changed into the left hand one under the influence of the Chinese culture that emphasized the importance of left hand. As a result of this study, it is right that the right hand of Buddha's birth image should point out the heaven and the left hand the earth. The clarity in the hand seal of Buddha's birth image can be said very important and necessary in that it is closely related with the image washing rite on the birth day of Buddha.