A Comprehensive Study of the Lost Buddha Statues at Pogwangjŏn, the Main Hall of Hoeamsa

The main Buddha hall of Hoeamsa 檜巖寺, the monastery that received heavy royal patronages from the late Koryŏ to the early Chosŏn period, was a building known as Pogwangjŏn 普光殿 built in the 14th century. Unfortunately, little is known about the Buddhist statues that had been enshrined in Pogwangjŏn because the monastery fell into ruins two centuries later. Based on comprehensive analyses of historical records and archaeological excavations of the monastery site, this paper attempts to infer the iconography, size, shape, number, and religious meanings of these lost Buddhist statues. The Records of the Restoration of Hoeamsa on Mount Ch’ŏnbo (Ch’ŏnbosan hoeamsa sujogi 天寶山檜巖寺修造記) and archaeological remains suggest that three Buddha status as tall as fifteen ch’ŏk 尺, which would be 4.39-4.6m in modern measurement were enshrined in the monastery’s main hall. Based on the teaching and life of the monk Naong Hyegŭn 懶翁惠勤 (1320-1376) who built the hall and the iconography of embroidered Buddhist hanging scrolls donated by the Queen Wŏn’gŏyng 元敬 (1365-1420), we can infer that these three statues comprised either Amitābha-Śākyamuni-BhaiSajyaguru Buddhas, or Amitābha-VairocanaBhaiSajyaguru Buddhas, perhaps the latter in higher chances. These threes Buddhas, as this paper suggests, were designed to embody the trikāya 三身 and the triratna 三寶 along the north-south and the east-west axes of the monastery layout.