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Youn-mi Kim

Ewha Womans University, History of Art, Faculty Member

Yale University, History of Art, Faculty Member

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Youn-mi Kim, Associate Professor in Asian Art at Ewha Womans University, is a specialist in Buddhist art. Before joining the Ewha faculty, Youn-mi Kim was an Assistant Professor in Chinese Art History at Yale University (2012-2016), an Assistant Professor in Asian art history at The Ohio State University (2011-12) and a postdoctoral associate at the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University (2010-11). She is particularly interested in symbolic rituals, in which an architectural space serves as a material agent

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Papers by Youn-mi Kim

Talismans ( pujŏk 符籍) for Rebirth in Chosŏn Buddhist Rituals and their Earlier Traces in China

by Youn-mi Kim and Moon Sang-leun

Journal of Korean Religions, 2023

This article examines the significance of pujŏk 符籍, commonly referred to as talismans, within div... more This article examines the significance of pujŏk 符籍, commonly referred to as talismans, within diverse Chosŏn rituals spanning antemortem to postmortem practices, as well as image-making ceremonies, with a specific emphasis on talismans for rebirth in the Pure Land. Drawing on previously unexplored talismans found in graves and statues, this article explores how these rebirth talismans were stamped on clothing for burial, attached to coffins, burned during the antemortem Yesujae 預修齋 ritual, orally consumed in chants, and even enshrined in newly made Buddhist statues through the pokchang ritual. This research identifies two distinct rebirth talisman types-the ''Seal of the Pure Land'' and the ''Talisman for Pure Land Rebirth''-each originating from different periods and serving distinct ritual functions. The ''Seal of the Pure Land,'' with earlier examples traceable to medieval Dunhuang manuscripts, was extensively used in late Koryŏ and Chosŏn. In contrast, the ''Talisman for Pure Land Rebirth'' emerged as amulets meant for oral consumption during the Ten-Thousand-Day Assembly (Manirhoe 萬日會) ritual in the eighteenth century, and it was later adopted in other rituals during the Chosŏn period. Through an analysis of seemingly mundane objects, this study uncovers a rich tapestry of Buddhist practices spanning western China and the Korean Peninsula, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of Chosŏn Buddhist rituals and their broader cultural significance.

Talismans ( pujŏk 符籍) for Rebirth in Chosŏn Buddhist Rituals and their Earlier Traces in China

This article examines the significance of pujŏk 符籍, commonly referred to as talismans, within div... more This article examines the significance of pujŏk 符籍, commonly referred to as talismans, within diverse Chosŏn rituals spanning antemortem to postmortem practices, as well as image-making ceremonies, with a specific emphasis on talismans for rebirth in the Pure Land. Drawing on previously unexplored talismans found in graves and statues, this article explores how these rebirth talismans were stamped on clothing for burial, attached to coffins, burned during the antemortem Yesujae 預修齋 ritual, orally consumed in chants, and even enshrined in newly made Buddhist statues through the pokchang ritual. This research identifies two distinct rebirth talisman types-the ''Seal of the Pure Land'' and the ''Talisman for Pure Land Rebirth''-each originating from different periods and serving distinct ritual functions. The ''Seal of the Pure Land,'' with earlier examples traceable to medieval Dunhuang manuscripts, was extensively used in late Koryŏ and Chosŏn. In contrast, the ''Talisman for Pure Land Rebirth'' emerged as amulets meant for oral consumption during the Ten-Thousand-Day Assembly (Manirhoe 萬日會) ritual in the eighteenth century, and it was later adopted in other rituals during the Chosŏn period. Through an analysis of seemingly mundane objects, this study uncovers a rich tapestry of Buddhist practices spanning western China and the Korean Peninsula, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of Chosŏn Buddhist rituals and their broader cultural significance.

Forgotten Traces of the Buddhist Incantation Spell Practice from Early Korea: Amulet Sheets of the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment (Mahāpratisarā) from Silla

Religions , 2023

Through an investigation of two recently discovered paper sheets of the Incantation of Wish‑Fulfi... more Through an investigation of two recently discovered paper sheets of the Incantation of Wish‑Fulfillment from the Silla kingdom, this paper reveals that early Korea had more diverse forms of dhāraṇī practices than previously assumed. Through analyses of these incantation sheets, this paper contributes toward filling the gap in our current understanding of the material practice pertaining to the Incantation of Wish‑Fulfillment of medieval East Asia. Previously, all known traces of material dhāraṇīs from early Korea, with just a few exceptions, were related to the Sūtra of the Pure Light Incantation enshrined in the relic crypts of pagodas—a practice that has little connection to contemporaneous Chinese dhāraṇī practice. However, the newly discovered Incantation of Wish‑Fulfillment sheets, whose date this paper infers to be between the eighth and ninth century, show that Unified Silla had a dhāraṇī practice closely linked to coeval Chinese practice. The Incantation of Wish‑Fulfillment sheets from Silla show the modification and continuation of Chinese dhāraṇī practice. Unlike the Chinese amulet sheets of the Incantation of Wish‑Fulfillment that were buried in tombs, the Silla amulet sheetswere likely enshrined in one of the pagodas erected on Mount Nam in Silla’s capital. At the same time, they were placed in the pagoda to wish for good afterlives of the soldiers who died at the battle, suggesting that they had a mortuary function similar to those buried in Chinese tombs.

How to Fill an Intellectual Lacuna: Towards a Global History Approach to Korean Buddhist Talismans

YŎKSA WA HYŎNSIL : Quarterly Review of Korean History

The Relic Crypt of the Chaoyang North Pagoda from the Liao Dynasty and the Origin of the Shingon School’s Nyohō Sonshō Ritual

Art History and Visual Culture, 2011

Buddhist Ontology and Miniaturization : Enacting Ritual with Nonhuman Agency

International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture, 2017

This paper aims to theoretically explain the ways in which a ritual was enacted (or believed to b... more This paper aims to theoretically explain the ways in which a ritual was enacted (or believed to be enacted) primarily through non-human agency in medieval Buddhism. Focusing on the miniature ritual altar installed in the relic depository of Chaoyang North Pagoda (1043–44), this paper addresses an academic lacuna in current ritual theories. Ritual theories almost always assume that ritual is a kind of human action, which makes it impossible to explain ritual spaces or objects that were designed to enact the ritual without human participation. The relic depository of Chaoyang North Pagoda was a completely sealed stone box that was clearly designed as a ritual space for chanting the Superlative Spell (Skt. Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī). This ritual space occluded from human access contradicts with contemporary understandings of ritual. By illuminating the relic depository from the emic perspective of medieval Buddhists and applying anthropological theories, this paper offers theoretical explanations for conditions in which religious rituals were primarily enacted through non-human agency.

The Emergence and Development of the 42-Hand Mantras of Avalokiteśvara and the Five Great Mantras

Buddhist Architecture, Politics, and Gender in the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla

History of Collecting Korean Ceramics in America and the Yale University Art Collections

Arts of Asia, 2019

A Comprehensive Study of the Lost Buddha Statues at Pogwangjŏn, the Main Hall of Hoeamsa

Korean Journal of Art History, 2021

The main Buddha hall of Hoeamsa 檜巖寺, the monastery that received heavy royal patronages from the ... more The main Buddha hall of Hoeamsa 檜巖寺, the monastery that received heavy royal patronages from the late Koryŏ to the early Chosŏn period, was a building known as Pogwangjŏn 普光殿 built in the 14th century. Unfortunately, little is known about the Buddhist statues that had been enshrined in Pogwangjŏn because the monastery fell into ruins two centuries later. Based on comprehensive analyses of historical records and archaeological excavations of the monastery site, this paper attempts to infer the iconography, size, shape, number, and religious meanings of these lost Buddhist statues. The Records of the Restoration of Hoeamsa on Mount Ch’ŏnbo (Ch’ŏnbosan hoeamsa sujogi 天寶山檜巖寺修造記) and archaeological remains suggest that three Buddha status as tall as fifteen ch’ŏk 尺, which would be 4.39-4.6m in modern measurement were enshrined in the monastery’s main hall. Based on the teaching and life of the monk Naong Hyegŭn 懶翁惠勤 (1320-1376) who built the hall and the iconography of embroidered Buddhi...

Growth of the Field and Vanishing Boundaries: A Retrospective and Prospective of Asian Art History (2019-2020)

The Korean Historical Review, 2021

Transformation of Buddhist Talisman-Seals during the Koryŏ Dynasty

BUL GYO HAK BO, 2021

Surrogate Body inside the Sacred Body: Used Clothing in Korean Buddhist Statues

Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, 2019

La tradition bouddhique coréenne a eu une pratique unique consistant à enchâsser des vêtements us... more La tradition bouddhique coréenne a eu une pratique unique consistant à enchâsser des vêtements usés dans les statues bouddhiques. Depuis que les spécialistes coréens ont commencé à examiner systématiquement l’intérieur des statues bouddhiques il y a quelques décennies, des vêtements divers y ont été découverts, dont les datations correspondent à la fin de la période du Koryŏ (918-1392) et à la période du Chosŏn (1392-1910). Grâce à un examen des contextes socioreligieux et anthropologiques de cette pratique bouddhique, et en retrouvant la trace de son lien avec les pratiques funéraires et les croyances populaires, cet article soutient que les vêtements usés servaient de corps de substitution du propriétaire et constituaient une offrande à la divinité bouddhiste. Il est largement admis que les objets divers introduits dans la cache ventrale (pokchang 腹藏) des statues ont pour fonction d’insuffler la vie aux statues. Néanmoins, cet article suggère que les vêtements usés avaient une fonction fondamentalement différente, bien qu’ils fassent également partie du pokchang. Cet article examine dans un premier temps une veste en soie provenant de la statue de Mañjuśrī (1466) du monastère Sangwŏn 上院寺. Puis, s’appuyant sur une comparaison interculturelle et une approche interreligieuse, il élargit l’horizon de la pratique et examine pourquoi l’emploi des vêtements est devenu répandu dans le bouddhisme coréen.Kim Youn-mi. Surrogate Body inside the Sacred Body: Used Clothing in Korean Buddhist Statues. In: Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, vol. 28, 2019. Pokchang. Image Consecration in Korean Buddhism / Consécration des images dans le bouddhisme coréen. pp. 101-131

The Korean Pokchang Tradition and the Placing of Objects in Buddhist Statues

Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, 2019

Robson James, Lee Seunghye, Kim Youn-mi. The Korean Pokchang Tradition and the Placing of Objects... more

A Ritual Embodied in Architectural Space: The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī and Yingxian Timber Pagoda from the Liao Empire

International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture, 2020

Previous scholarship has generally focused on dhāraṇī practices of two types: those that enact th... more Previous scholarship has generally focused on dhāraṇī practices of two types: those that enact the believed power of dhāraṇīs through recitation, and those that use inscribed or stamped dhāraṇīs as talismans. Through an examination of Yingxian Timber Pagoda (ca. 1056) from the Liao Dynasty, however, this paper reveals a third type of dhāraṇī practice in north China that broke from those of the Tang period in that it required no written or recited form of dhāraṇī; instead, it materialized the ritual process in physical form—from invocation of the Buddhas to ritual enactment of the wish-fulfilling jewel and mandala—by means of an architectural space. The five stories of the pagoda, and the Buddhist statues enshrined therein, as this paper shows, were designed not only to embody the chanting ritual of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī (Foding zunsheng tuoluoni佛頂尊勝陀羅尼) but also to visualize the philosophical contents of the dhāraṇī in material form. The pagoda’s architectural space was planned in such a way as to generate the efficacy of the dhāraṇī through the material agency of the pagoda and its statues with their intricate iconography. In the ritual imagination of medieval Buddhists, the pagoda was believed to be an architectural device that, once erected, would incessantly enact the dhāraṇī ritual with little to no human intervention. Yingxian Timber Pagoda aptly exhibits the ways in which Liao Buddhism complicated and innovated the dhāraṇī practices that had been inherited from previous dynasties, expanding the tradition of “material dhāraṇī” practice in the cultural landscape of East Asia.

Virtual Pilgrimage and Virtual Geography: Power of Liao Miniature Pagodas (907-1125)

Religions, 2017

This paper examines the role of the miniature in Buddhist ritual, through analyses of miniature p... more This paper examines the role of the miniature in Buddhist ritual, through analyses of miniature pagodas from middle-period China. Due to the otherworldly sensations they evoked and their theatrical nature, miniatures were often endowed with magical and performative power in funerary and religious contexts. The miniature pagodas from the Liao empire (907-1125) were replicas of the stupa monuments (the prototype of the pagoda) at the Eight Great Sacred Places in India. Adopting ritual theories and a comparative approach, this paper illuminates how the Liao miniature pagodas were devised to symbolically transfer the sacred places to the Liao empire in northeast China, allowing Liao Buddhists to make a virtual pilgrimage to the Buddha's homeland by circumambulating the pagoda. The ways in which they functioned in the Buddhist ritual were similar to the small-scale copies of the Holy Sepulcher in medieval Europe. Their power-contrary to common sense-originated from their miniature size and intentional rejection of their sacred prototype. Through these miniatures, the banal ritual of pagoda circumambulation was transformed into an imaginary journey to the distant holy land, which was believed to be more efficacious and meritorious than an actual pilgrimage, and the prairie of northeast China was turned into the most sacred place in the Buddhist world.

New perspectives on early Korean art : from Silla to Koryŏ

This volume, consisting of five chapters and an introduction, includes discussion of a variety of... more This volume, consisting of five chapters and an introduction, includes discussion of a variety of artworks, ranging from gold adornments found in Silla tombs to Kory? Buddhist paintings scattered in modern museum and private collections, that provide insight into the religious practices, aesthetics, cross-cultural exchanges, and everyday life of the people who made, used, appreciated, and circulated them. Based on thorough investigations of these artworks, their social context, and related texts, the five chapters in this book elucidate the cross-cultural interactions between the peoples and regions of Korea, China and South and Southeast Asia during the Silla to Kory? periods.

The body incantatory: Spells and the ritual imagination in medieval Chinese Buddhism, by Paul Copp

Studies in Chinese Religions, 2015

From Esoteric to Pure Land and Huayan Buddhism: Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī Mandala in Liao Buddhism

Korean Journal of Art History, 2020

Ⅰ. Introduction Ⅱ. Text and Image: Early Liao Mandala and Tang Scriptures Ⅲ. Three-dimensional Ma... more Ⅰ. Introduction Ⅱ. Text and Image: Early Liao Mandala and Tang Scriptures Ⅲ. Three-dimensional Mandala Ⅳ. Textual Mandala: Modification and Expansion Ⅴ. Conclusion 1 The textual source of the uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī is the Sutra of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī (Foding zunsheng tuoluoni jing 佛頂尊勝陀羅尼經). The sutra was so popular that it was translated five times in China, once each by Buddhapālita (T. 19, no. 967),

A Ritual Embodied in Architectural Space: The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī and Yingxian Timber Pagoda from the Liao Empire

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture, 2020

Previous scholarship has generally focused on dhāraṇī practices of two types: those that enact th... more Previous scholarship has generally focused on dhāraṇī practices of two types: those that enact the believed power of dhāraṇīs through recitation, and those that use inscribed or stamped dhāraṇīs as talismans. Through an examination of Yingxian Timber Pagoda (ca. 1056) from the Liao Dynasty, however, this paper reveals a third type of dhāraṇī practice in north China that broke from those of the Tang period in that it required no written or recited form of dhāraṇī; instead, it materialized the ritual process in physical form—from invocation of the Buddhas to ritual enactment of the wish-fulfilling jewel and mandala—by means of an architectural space. The five stories of the pagoda, and the Buddhist statues enshrined therein, as this paper shows, were designed not only to embody the chanting ritual of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī (Foding zunsheng tuoluoni佛頂尊勝陀羅尼) but also to visualize the philosophical contents of the dhāraṇī in material form. The pagoda’s architectural space was planned in such a way as to generate the efficacy of the dhāraṇī through the material agency of the pagoda and its statues with their intricate iconography. In the ritual imagination of medieval Buddhists, the pagoda was believed to be an architectural device that, once erected, would incessantly enact the dhāraṇī ritual with little to no human intervention. Yingxian Timber Pagoda aptly exhibits the ways in which Liao Buddhism complicated and innovated the dhāraṇī practices that had been inherited from previous dynasties, expanding the tradition of “material dhāraṇī” practice in the cultural landscape of East Asia.

Talismans ( pujŏk 符籍) for Rebirth in Chosŏn Buddhist Rituals and their Earlier Traces in China

by Youn-mi Kim and Moon Sang-leun

Journal of Korean Religions, 2023

This article examines the significance of pujŏk 符籍, commonly referred to as talismans, within div... more This article examines the significance of pujŏk 符籍, commonly referred to as talismans, within diverse Chosŏn rituals spanning antemortem to postmortem practices, as well as image-making ceremonies, with a specific emphasis on talismans for rebirth in the Pure Land. Drawing on previously unexplored talismans found in graves and statues, this article explores how these rebirth talismans were stamped on clothing for burial, attached to coffins, burned during the antemortem Yesujae 預修齋 ritual, orally consumed in chants, and even enshrined in newly made Buddhist statues through the pokchang ritual. This research identifies two distinct rebirth talisman types-the ''Seal of the Pure Land'' and the ''Talisman for Pure Land Rebirth''-each originating from different periods and serving distinct ritual functions. The ''Seal of the Pure Land,'' with earlier examples traceable to medieval Dunhuang manuscripts, was extensively used in late Koryŏ and Chosŏn. In contrast, the ''Talisman for Pure Land Rebirth'' emerged as amulets meant for oral consumption during the Ten-Thousand-Day Assembly (Manirhoe 萬日會) ritual in the eighteenth century, and it was later adopted in other rituals during the Chosŏn period. Through an analysis of seemingly mundane objects, this study uncovers a rich tapestry of Buddhist practices spanning western China and the Korean Peninsula, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of Chosŏn Buddhist rituals and their broader cultural significance.

Talismans ( pujŏk 符籍) for Rebirth in Chosŏn Buddhist Rituals and their Earlier Traces in China

This article examines the significance of pujŏk 符籍, commonly referred to as talismans, within div... more This article examines the significance of pujŏk 符籍, commonly referred to as talismans, within diverse Chosŏn rituals spanning antemortem to postmortem practices, as well as image-making ceremonies, with a specific emphasis on talismans for rebirth in the Pure Land. Drawing on previously unexplored talismans found in graves and statues, this article explores how these rebirth talismans were stamped on clothing for burial, attached to coffins, burned during the antemortem Yesujae 預修齋 ritual, orally consumed in chants, and even enshrined in newly made Buddhist statues through the pokchang ritual. This research identifies two distinct rebirth talisman types-the ''Seal of the Pure Land'' and the ''Talisman for Pure Land Rebirth''-each originating from different periods and serving distinct ritual functions. The ''Seal of the Pure Land,'' with earlier examples traceable to medieval Dunhuang manuscripts, was extensively used in late Koryŏ and Chosŏn. In contrast, the ''Talisman for Pure Land Rebirth'' emerged as amulets meant for oral consumption during the Ten-Thousand-Day Assembly (Manirhoe 萬日會) ritual in the eighteenth century, and it was later adopted in other rituals during the Chosŏn period. Through an analysis of seemingly mundane objects, this study uncovers a rich tapestry of Buddhist practices spanning western China and the Korean Peninsula, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of Chosŏn Buddhist rituals and their broader cultural significance.

Forgotten Traces of the Buddhist Incantation Spell Practice from Early Korea: Amulet Sheets of the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment (Mahāpratisarā) from Silla

Religions , 2023

Through an investigation of two recently discovered paper sheets of the Incantation of Wish‑Fulfi... more Through an investigation of two recently discovered paper sheets of the Incantation of Wish‑Fulfillment from the Silla kingdom, this paper reveals that early Korea had more diverse forms of dhāraṇī practices than previously assumed. Through analyses of these incantation sheets, this paper contributes toward filling the gap in our current understanding of the material practice pertaining to the Incantation of Wish‑Fulfillment of medieval East Asia. Previously, all known traces of material dhāraṇīs from early Korea, with just a few exceptions, were related to the Sūtra of the Pure Light Incantation enshrined in the relic crypts of pagodas—a practice that has little connection to contemporaneous Chinese dhāraṇī practice. However, the newly discovered Incantation of Wish‑Fulfillment sheets, whose date this paper infers to be between the eighth and ninth century, show that Unified Silla had a dhāraṇī practice closely linked to coeval Chinese practice. The Incantation of Wish‑Fulfillment sheets from Silla show the modification and continuation of Chinese dhāraṇī practice. Unlike the Chinese amulet sheets of the Incantation of Wish‑Fulfillment that were buried in tombs, the Silla amulet sheetswere likely enshrined in one of the pagodas erected on Mount Nam in Silla’s capital. At the same time, they were placed in the pagoda to wish for good afterlives of the soldiers who died at the battle, suggesting that they had a mortuary function similar to those buried in Chinese tombs.

How to Fill an Intellectual Lacuna: Towards a Global History Approach to Korean Buddhist Talismans

YŎKSA WA HYŎNSIL : Quarterly Review of Korean History

The Relic Crypt of the Chaoyang North Pagoda from the Liao Dynasty and the Origin of the Shingon School’s Nyohō Sonshō Ritual

Art History and Visual Culture, 2011

Buddhist Ontology and Miniaturization : Enacting Ritual with Nonhuman Agency

International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture, 2017

This paper aims to theoretically explain the ways in which a ritual was enacted (or believed to b... more This paper aims to theoretically explain the ways in which a ritual was enacted (or believed to be enacted) primarily through non-human agency in medieval Buddhism. Focusing on the miniature ritual altar installed in the relic depository of Chaoyang North Pagoda (1043–44), this paper addresses an academic lacuna in current ritual theories. Ritual theories almost always assume that ritual is a kind of human action, which makes it impossible to explain ritual spaces or objects that were designed to enact the ritual without human participation. The relic depository of Chaoyang North Pagoda was a completely sealed stone box that was clearly designed as a ritual space for chanting the Superlative Spell (Skt. Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī). This ritual space occluded from human access contradicts with contemporary understandings of ritual. By illuminating the relic depository from the emic perspective of medieval Buddhists and applying anthropological theories, this paper offers theoretical explanations for conditions in which religious rituals were primarily enacted through non-human agency.

The Emergence and Development of the 42-Hand Mantras of Avalokiteśvara and the Five Great Mantras

Buddhist Architecture, Politics, and Gender in the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla

History of Collecting Korean Ceramics in America and the Yale University Art Collections

Arts of Asia, 2019

A Comprehensive Study of the Lost Buddha Statues at Pogwangjŏn, the Main Hall of Hoeamsa

Korean Journal of Art History, 2021

The main Buddha hall of Hoeamsa 檜巖寺, the monastery that received heavy royal patronages from the ... more The main Buddha hall of Hoeamsa 檜巖寺, the monastery that received heavy royal patronages from the late Koryŏ to the early Chosŏn period, was a building known as Pogwangjŏn 普光殿 built in the 14th century. Unfortunately, little is known about the Buddhist statues that had been enshrined in Pogwangjŏn because the monastery fell into ruins two centuries later. Based on comprehensive analyses of historical records and archaeological excavations of the monastery site, this paper attempts to infer the iconography, size, shape, number, and religious meanings of these lost Buddhist statues. The Records of the Restoration of Hoeamsa on Mount Ch’ŏnbo (Ch’ŏnbosan hoeamsa sujogi 天寶山檜巖寺修造記) and archaeological remains suggest that three Buddha status as tall as fifteen ch’ŏk 尺, which would be 4.39-4.6m in modern measurement were enshrined in the monastery’s main hall. Based on the teaching and life of the monk Naong Hyegŭn 懶翁惠勤 (1320-1376) who built the hall and the iconography of embroidered Buddhi...

Growth of the Field and Vanishing Boundaries: A Retrospective and Prospective of Asian Art History (2019-2020)

The Korean Historical Review, 2021

Transformation of Buddhist Talisman-Seals during the Koryŏ Dynasty

BUL GYO HAK BO, 2021

Surrogate Body inside the Sacred Body: Used Clothing in Korean Buddhist Statues

Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, 2019

La tradition bouddhique coréenne a eu une pratique unique consistant à enchâsser des vêtements us... more La tradition bouddhique coréenne a eu une pratique unique consistant à enchâsser des vêtements usés dans les statues bouddhiques. Depuis que les spécialistes coréens ont commencé à examiner systématiquement l’intérieur des statues bouddhiques il y a quelques décennies, des vêtements divers y ont été découverts, dont les datations correspondent à la fin de la période du Koryŏ (918-1392) et à la période du Chosŏn (1392-1910). Grâce à un examen des contextes socioreligieux et anthropologiques de cette pratique bouddhique, et en retrouvant la trace de son lien avec les pratiques funéraires et les croyances populaires, cet article soutient que les vêtements usés servaient de corps de substitution du propriétaire et constituaient une offrande à la divinité bouddhiste. Il est largement admis que les objets divers introduits dans la cache ventrale (pokchang 腹藏) des statues ont pour fonction d’insuffler la vie aux statues. Néanmoins, cet article suggère que les vêtements usés avaient une fonction fondamentalement différente, bien qu’ils fassent également partie du pokchang. Cet article examine dans un premier temps une veste en soie provenant de la statue de Mañjuśrī (1466) du monastère Sangwŏn 上院寺. Puis, s’appuyant sur une comparaison interculturelle et une approche interreligieuse, il élargit l’horizon de la pratique et examine pourquoi l’emploi des vêtements est devenu répandu dans le bouddhisme coréen.Kim Youn-mi. Surrogate Body inside the Sacred Body: Used Clothing in Korean Buddhist Statues. In: Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, vol. 28, 2019. Pokchang. Image Consecration in Korean Buddhism / Consécration des images dans le bouddhisme coréen. pp. 101-131

The Korean Pokchang Tradition and the Placing of Objects in Buddhist Statues

Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, 2019

Robson James, Lee Seunghye, Kim Youn-mi. The Korean Pokchang Tradition and the Placing of Objects... more

A Ritual Embodied in Architectural Space: The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī and Yingxian Timber Pagoda from the Liao Empire

International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture, 2020

Previous scholarship has generally focused on dhāraṇī practices of two types: those that enact th... more Previous scholarship has generally focused on dhāraṇī practices of two types: those that enact the believed power of dhāraṇīs through recitation, and those that use inscribed or stamped dhāraṇīs as talismans. Through an examination of Yingxian Timber Pagoda (ca. 1056) from the Liao Dynasty, however, this paper reveals a third type of dhāraṇī practice in north China that broke from those of the Tang period in that it required no written or recited form of dhāraṇī; instead, it materialized the ritual process in physical form—from invocation of the Buddhas to ritual enactment of the wish-fulfilling jewel and mandala—by means of an architectural space. The five stories of the pagoda, and the Buddhist statues enshrined therein, as this paper shows, were designed not only to embody the chanting ritual of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī (Foding zunsheng tuoluoni佛頂尊勝陀羅尼) but also to visualize the philosophical contents of the dhāraṇī in material form. The pagoda’s architectural space was planned in such a way as to generate the efficacy of the dhāraṇī through the material agency of the pagoda and its statues with their intricate iconography. In the ritual imagination of medieval Buddhists, the pagoda was believed to be an architectural device that, once erected, would incessantly enact the dhāraṇī ritual with little to no human intervention. Yingxian Timber Pagoda aptly exhibits the ways in which Liao Buddhism complicated and innovated the dhāraṇī practices that had been inherited from previous dynasties, expanding the tradition of “material dhāraṇī” practice in the cultural landscape of East Asia.

Virtual Pilgrimage and Virtual Geography: Power of Liao Miniature Pagodas (907-1125)

Religions, 2017

This paper examines the role of the miniature in Buddhist ritual, through analyses of miniature p... more This paper examines the role of the miniature in Buddhist ritual, through analyses of miniature pagodas from middle-period China. Due to the otherworldly sensations they evoked and their theatrical nature, miniatures were often endowed with magical and performative power in funerary and religious contexts. The miniature pagodas from the Liao empire (907-1125) were replicas of the stupa monuments (the prototype of the pagoda) at the Eight Great Sacred Places in India. Adopting ritual theories and a comparative approach, this paper illuminates how the Liao miniature pagodas were devised to symbolically transfer the sacred places to the Liao empire in northeast China, allowing Liao Buddhists to make a virtual pilgrimage to the Buddha's homeland by circumambulating the pagoda. The ways in which they functioned in the Buddhist ritual were similar to the small-scale copies of the Holy Sepulcher in medieval Europe. Their power-contrary to common sense-originated from their miniature size and intentional rejection of their sacred prototype. Through these miniatures, the banal ritual of pagoda circumambulation was transformed into an imaginary journey to the distant holy land, which was believed to be more efficacious and meritorious than an actual pilgrimage, and the prairie of northeast China was turned into the most sacred place in the Buddhist world.

New perspectives on early Korean art : from Silla to Koryŏ

This volume, consisting of five chapters and an introduction, includes discussion of a variety of... more This volume, consisting of five chapters and an introduction, includes discussion of a variety of artworks, ranging from gold adornments found in Silla tombs to Kory? Buddhist paintings scattered in modern museum and private collections, that provide insight into the religious practices, aesthetics, cross-cultural exchanges, and everyday life of the people who made, used, appreciated, and circulated them. Based on thorough investigations of these artworks, their social context, and related texts, the five chapters in this book elucidate the cross-cultural interactions between the peoples and regions of Korea, China and South and Southeast Asia during the Silla to Kory? periods.

The body incantatory: Spells and the ritual imagination in medieval Chinese Buddhism, by Paul Copp

Studies in Chinese Religions, 2015

From Esoteric to Pure Land and Huayan Buddhism: Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī Mandala in Liao Buddhism

Korean Journal of Art History, 2020

Ⅰ. Introduction Ⅱ. Text and Image: Early Liao Mandala and Tang Scriptures Ⅲ. Three-dimensional Ma... more Ⅰ. Introduction Ⅱ. Text and Image: Early Liao Mandala and Tang Scriptures Ⅲ. Three-dimensional Mandala Ⅳ. Textual Mandala: Modification and Expansion Ⅴ. Conclusion 1 The textual source of the uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī is the Sutra of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī (Foding zunsheng tuoluoni jing 佛頂尊勝陀羅尼經). The sutra was so popular that it was translated five times in China, once each by Buddhapālita (T. 19, no. 967),

A Ritual Embodied in Architectural Space: The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī and Yingxian Timber Pagoda from the Liao Empire

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture, 2020

Previous scholarship has generally focused on dhāraṇī practices of two types: those that enact th... more Previous scholarship has generally focused on dhāraṇī practices of two types: those that enact the believed power of dhāraṇīs through recitation, and those that use inscribed or stamped dhāraṇīs as talismans. Through an examination of Yingxian Timber Pagoda (ca. 1056) from the Liao Dynasty, however, this paper reveals a third type of dhāraṇī practice in north China that broke from those of the Tang period in that it required no written or recited form of dhāraṇī; instead, it materialized the ritual process in physical form—from invocation of the Buddhas to ritual enactment of the wish-fulfilling jewel and mandala—by means of an architectural space. The five stories of the pagoda, and the Buddhist statues enshrined therein, as this paper shows, were designed not only to embody the chanting ritual of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī (Foding zunsheng tuoluoni佛頂尊勝陀羅尼) but also to visualize the philosophical contents of the dhāraṇī in material form. The pagoda’s architectural space was planned in such a way as to generate the efficacy of the dhāraṇī through the material agency of the pagoda and its statues with their intricate iconography. In the ritual imagination of medieval Buddhists, the pagoda was believed to be an architectural device that, once erected, would incessantly enact the dhāraṇī ritual with little to no human intervention. Yingxian Timber Pagoda aptly exhibits the ways in which Liao Buddhism complicated and innovated the dhāraṇī practices that had been inherited from previous dynasties, expanding the tradition of “material dhāraṇī” practice in the cultural landscape of East Asia.