Mural Painting in Geungnakjeon Hall of Daewonsa Temple, Boseong (Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva and Buddhist Monk Bodhidharma)

The two murals that represent Avalokitesvara and Bodhidharma face each other on the west and east walls inside the Hall of Pure Land at Daewonsa Temple, respectively.

The Painting of Avalokitesvara on the west wall is seated on a lotus pedestal against a backdrop of bamboo trees and unique rock formation. It is clad in a white robe accompanied by a boy attendant called Sudhana, who is holding a bluebird in his arms as he stands in the background.

The Painting of Bodhidharma on the east wall represents a legend in which Hyega (Buddhist monk of Sui Dynasty of China; Huike in Chinese) cut his left arm off, which is a popular iconography in Zen Buddhist paintings, to present it to Bodhidharma as he implored the latter to accept him as a disciple. Bodhidharma is portrayed large and prominent compared to Hyega who is depicted as rather small.

Based on the information provided in the signboard of Daewonsa Tibetan Museum’s collection, the murals appear to have been painted in 1767 at the time of the reconstruction of the Main Buddha Hall, which occurred a year after the creation of the Paintings of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and the Ten Underworld Kings (Treasure).

The two murals, inherited by the mural paintings of Avalokitesvara and Bodhidharma in Unmunsa Temple, show the stylistic characteristics of the Uigyeom School, the painters from which were active in the mid to late 18th century in the Jeollanam-do region.

Source: Korea Heritage Service signboard ↗ · collected 2026-10-08