Enshrining Buddha's statue or Bodhisattva's or any other statues in the sanctuary of temple is required two stages of rites so those statue to be an object of religious belief. The required rites are Buddhist Statue Enshrinements(腹藏) and Applying ...
Enshrining Buddha's statue or Bodhisattva's or any other statues in the sanctuary of temple is required two stages of rites so those statue to be an object of religious belief. The required rites are Buddhist Statue Enshrinements(腹藏) and Applying Eyespot(點眼).
Buddhist Statue Enshrinements is a rite of stuffing required objects into the statues concerned with Buddhism or indicates those objects required in the rite. In detail the Enshrinements is a complete process of Buddhist rite of enshrining Buddhist statue by stuffing objects that is necessary, or indicates those objects being stuffed into the Buddhist statue. The rite of Enshrinements is proceeded by arranged orders, so that the enshrined statue is provided religious meaning out of a physical sculpture. So the rite of Enshrinements is a mediation for the statue's rebirth to have religious meanings.
The origin of Enshrinements and the religious foundations of the objects to be stuffed inside statue has not revealed yet. In case of Korean peninsula the earliest indication of Enshrinements is a seat stand made of agalmatolite(蠟石製壺) with the inscription of record, A.D. 766(2nd year of Yeonghea-永泰) on the surface of seat stand which is located outside the main Buddha of stone Vairocana. The earliest instance of Enshrinements stuffed inside Buddha's body goes back to Goryeo Dynasty. One of the source that is concerned with the Enshrinement's rite is Building Statue Sutra(造像经), most of which is wood block printed in Joseon Dynasty. There is a gap of time to examine the Enshrinements of Goryeo Dynasty, but among those Enshrinements is found certain relations with the ideas of Statue Building Sutra, so that it is presumed to have provided certain theoretical foundations to the Enshrinement's rite.
It is said the Enshrinements rite was executed in 8th century in China, but the earliest existing relics of the rite is found from the Enshrinements of Song Dynasty(宋代). In case of the Sakyamuni Buddha's standing statue(释迦如来立像) enshrined in the Cheongryang temple(清凉寺) in Kyoto, Japan the stuffs of Enshrinements shows the symbolization of human's intestines by way of coloring those stuffs. The intention of the symbolization is to give life force to the Buddha's statue.
The primitive form of Enshrinements as a form of religious belief was to give life force to the Buddha's statue and deemed it to be a live human's body. It is presumed that with the lapse of time the early form of building statues has been developed to diverse style.
Inside Buddhist Statue is enshrined compactly with many kinds of objects for instance, statue and a Huryeongtong(喉铃筒) that contains a Document of Prayer recording informations about Enshrinements and Buddhist Statue, and also Symbols of Five Directions(五方位) besides Buddhist scriptures, transcriptions, Clothing, Darani(陀罗尼), Textiles.
Huryeongtong is form of Enshrinements continues until Joseon Dynasty which cases inserted into the center of statue's chest and packed by other contents. In this way the Huryeongtong is a center of contents that is compared to the heart of human's body. Inside Huryeongtong is inserted Obobyeong(五寶甁), Jinsimjongeja(眞心種子), Oryunjongja(五輪種子) and Four Directions mantra(四方呪).
It is textiles that occupy in quantity the contents of the Building Enshrinements. It is recorded in Building Statue Sutra that many of the contents like Document of Prayer(發願文), Jinsimjongja, Oryunjongja, Five vajra(五杵) is made by textiles. The textiles are very important because those are main material of contents in the process of Building Enshrinements.
It is found Plain Weave Textile, Twill Damask, Gauze, Satin Damask, Weave with supplementary Golden wef, Printing and Dyeing that shows diverse techniques of producing textiles. And variety of pattern is expressed like dragon, flower, clouds, gems, animal and geometrical patterns, and concerning composition of picture it was attempted small unit of patterns be crossed, turned over, mixed up with more than two figure. Also, it is found dyeing of various colors of red, white, black, blue, yellow, green, orange, etc.
Till now we have examined the Buddhist Building Enshrinements, however the origin of Enshrinements itself is still unknown, it is an attempt to give life to the statue as a symbol of the five viscera and the six entrails of human's intestines, and also as an agency of giving religious meaning to the statue that is eventually become an object of worship. So the Enshrinements is inevitable and important rite in Buddhism and a treasure house to inspire mind of belief in Buddhism.