제주도 法華寺 三尊佛像과 南京 大報恩寺의 관계

Abstract

There is a temple named Beophwa-sa in Seogwipo, Jeju. Beophwa-sa was a temple established according to the theory of geomancer in the period of late Goryeo and early Joseon. Emperor Yongle of Ming dynasty dispatched a officer to Joseon to demand the statue of Amitabha of Beophwa-sa in 1406. The government of Joseon thinking over the diplomatic relation with Ming sent the statue to Ming. It seemed that the intention of Emperor Yongle to demand Beophwa-sa's Three Statues of Buddha included the purpose of the observation of topography of Jeju and praying for the soul of his mother, a woman from Goryeon. It seemed that the Three Statues of Buddha of Beophwa-sa was placed in Tianxi-si(changed its name as Dabaoen-si soon after) of Nanjing, the capital of Ming. There is good possibility that the statue from Beophwa-sa was vanished when Tianxi-si was burned in the fire completely in 1408. Nanjing Museum has a wooden statue of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy contributed in 1947 by Hyang Youngga, a Korean. It is concluded that the statue of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy are not the very statue from Beophwa-sa because of the quality of its material.