Sculptures

The Age of Grandeur: Buddhist Sculpture in Unified Silla

In the eighth century, Buddhist sculpture was highly developed in Silla, which had unified most of the Korean Peninsula about a century earlier. Centralized royal power supported the production of Buddhist sculpture, allowing craftsmen to refine their skills and develop a sophisticated sense of human proportions.

Based on this craftsmanship, eighth-century Buddhist sculptures displayed remarkably well-proportioned bodies. Seokguram, built in the mid-eighth century in Gyeongju, is an outstanding example of the advanced craftsmanship of the period. The National Museum of Korea also houses remarkable iron Buddha statues dating from the late Unified Silla period.

Small heads, broad shoulders, and inverted-triangular upper bodies resemble what many people today would consider an attractive male physique. Producing such large iron statues required sophisticated casting techniques. Even small casting defects, such as gas bubbles or cracks on the surface, could damage the appearance of the sculpture.

Meanwhile, in the late eighth century, Charlemagne was expanding his power across Western Europe, the Vikings attacked the monastery of Lindisfarne in Britain, and the Abbasid Caliphate established Baghdad as its capital. Far away from these events, Buddhist sculpture was flourishing in Silla. Yet the atmosphere of the age seems interestingly similar.

The grandeur and confidence associated with powerful states can also be felt in the imposing, well-proportioned bodies of Silla Buddhas. The late eighth century was, in many regions, an age of expanding power and cultural confidence. A similar sense of confidence seems to permeate Silla Buddhist sculpture.

The Eight Legions and Guardians

Buddhism absorbed colorful myths as it developed. It embraced divine beings from India and China and turned them into guardians of the Dharma. The Eight Legions, the Zodiac Guardians, the Four Heavenly Kings, and the Vajra Guardians are examples of this.

The Eight Legions were groups of divine beings from Indian mythology. According to Buddhist tradition, they were moved by the Buddha’s teachings and became guardians of the Dharma. In Silla, an ancient Korean kingdom, the Eight Legions were carved on stone pagodas at temples in Gyeongju. It was convenient to place them in pairs on each side, since each side of a stone pagoda was already made up of two stone panels. Their presence emphasized the sacred nature of the pagoda as a monument embodying the Dharma.

The Zodiac Guardians were commonly carved on the stone structures surrounding large tombs. It was convenient to have twelve guardians because there were enough of them to encircle a large tomb. Each animal was given its own distinctive appearance, much like a modern-day character.

The Four Heavenly Kings were guardians, each of whom protected one of the four directions. Vajra Guardians originally carried vajras, powerful symbolic weapons used to defeat enemies. As their imagery developed in China and Korea, the Vajra Guardians evolved into distinctive figures whose strength was expressed through muscular bodies and bare hands.

It is amazing that Silla masons carved such elaborate figures out of hard granite. When they used softer materials such as soapstone, the details could become even more delicate. Silla people embraced the idea of powerful guardians protecting the precious Dharma. This also coincided with Silla’s policy of promoting Buddhism as an ideology for protecting the state. Silla’s carved guardians remain remarkably vivid today, retaining the distinctive beauty of their figures across the centuries.

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