Rev. Master Mugo at
JadeMountains highlights the
"utter expansiveness" of
Manjusri's Great Vow.In that spirit, I offer a Korean image of the Bodhisattva Manjusri as a boy figure,
tongja, from Sangwõn Temple on Mount Odae in Kangwõn Province. The temple was built in 1376 and restored in 1464. The image was commissioned two years later by Princess Uisuk and her husband in the hope of having a boy. I am not a scholar of Korean Buddhism and other accounts seem to differ. Nonetheless, the image is atypical for the Bodhisattva Manjusri.
National Treasure 221Sangwõn-sa Munsu tongja, Manjusri-as-a-boy"Manjusri represents the 'wisdom and realisation of all the Buddhas'. Accompanying Buddha Shakyamuni, he and Samantabhadra (Pohyõn Posal), who represents 'intrinsic principle, meditation and practice', would form a triad. His appearance as a boy with two top-knots is unusual, but as a Bodhisattva he is adorned with a pendant necklace and wearing bracelets. ... Manjusri in Japan always appears holding a sword, the symbol of wisdom in one hand, and a Buddhist scroll placed on top of a lotus in the other. But the Sangwõn-sa Manjusri shows a hand gesture that is more commonly associated with Amitabha Buddha. In the fifteenth century Korean Buddhist iconography was not strictly adhered to, and instead both mudra (hand gesture) and posture were more freely adapted to various images."
From "Handbook of Korean Art, Buddhist Sculpture," Youngsook Pak & Roderick Whitfield, Laurence King Publishing, London 2003. (Available in limited preview on Google Books).
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