天馬塚 出土 天馬圖攷

Abstract

]The animal, depicted on the picture, is not a "Kylin(麒鱗)", which is a legendary animal with a head of dragon and a body of deer, but a horse. The horn on the head of the horse is just an ornament for its head. This ornamental practice was also prevailed in Korean peninsula since "Han-Dynasty(漢)". The horn was made and decorated with mane of horse as a "topknot of horse's mane(말상투, 從結)". This "Chunma(天馬)", flying horse, of Shilla is originated from Central Asia and known as the best breed of "Daewan(大宛)", a country in Central Asia. These horses were imported to Shilla with its horse riding culture while doing commercial transactions with Daewan via "the Steppe Road". The ruling party of Shilla are originated from Northern nomad horse riding tribes. They came down to Korean peninsula with horse riding culture. In this paper, a Chunma ideology was investigated throughout the world while concentrating on a burial custom, which is a burial of the living with the dead. Through the research, buried living Chunma's spiritual function was also investigated for the dead. (Kyungpook National University/teclass@hanmail.net)