Though incomplete, the painting shows Vairocana (the Buddha of All-pervading Light) as a Bodhisattva seated on a lion throne with his legs crossed and hands posed in the mudra position signifying that Buddha and all sentient beings are one. To the left is depicted the preaching Samantabhadra (the Bodhisattva of Universal Benevolence) surrounded by various other Bodhisattva. The painting is executed mostly in gold with occasional accents of silver on red mulberry paper. The background consists of a square architectural setting, clouds, halos, and lotus flowers with curled stems. It is designated as Korean National Treasure No. 196.

History of the Object

Part of the only dated painting from the Unified Silla period surviving to this day, these fragments of a frontispiece of the Avatamsaka Sutra, or the “Great and Vast Buddha Garland Sutra,” are extremely important evidence of a Silla tradition of sumptuously illuminated Buddhist manuscripts. Judging from the extent of decay, this piece is assumed to have been a part of the fascicule containing the first to the tenth volumes. The scroll shown here contains the 44th to the 50th volumes of the same sutra.