韓國 腹藏의 密敎 尊像 安立儀禮적 성격 고찰

Abstract

What does it make a buddha image into a buddha? This question has been hotly discussed since the 1990s centering on the installation ritual of Buddhist images in Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism or on the objects yielded from inner recesses of Chinese and Japanese Buddhist images. There are few textual evidences for such rituals for Chinese and Japanese examples, making it difficult to examine scriptural basis or doctrinal background of them. In contrast, the Korean tradition of bokjang or the practice of interring objects within Buddhist images provides us a rare opportunity to compare a ritual manual called Josang gyeong with extant bokjang deposits yielded from Goryeo and Joseon Buddhist statues. The distinctive composition of the bokjang, shown in both the ritual manual and remaining objects, has led scholars to characterize this important ritual tradition as a unique product of Korean Buddhism. Most Korean scholars define bokjang as consecration, a ritual to invest a material image with sacred presence of the divine. This view accords well with a pervasive explanatory model in the Western academia that often describes the consecration as a ritual tool to animate, enliven, or empower an inert image. The emergence of this view, which I call a ritualistic view of Buddhist images, marks a significant turning point in the history of Korean Buddhist image-making practices. I have argued elsewhere that a ritual idea, derived from late Indian Esoteric Buddhism and transmitted to the Korean peninsula through Chinese translations of scriptures and manuals during the Song and Liao periods, have played a vital role in the transformation of Korean Buddhists’ perception of Buddhist images. This article aims to reconsider the overall structure of the bokjang ritual in light of pratiṣṭhā or the ritual of image-installation in Indian Esoteric Buddhism. This line of inquiry helps us better understand how the formation of bokjang ritual and its spread transformed the medieval Korean perception of Buddhist images and the practice of making images.