Koryŏ Buddhist Sculpture

Buddhist art flourished as much during the Koryo dynasty as it had during the Unified Silla period. With the rise of powerful local clans, several places far from the Silla capital of Kyongju emerged as centers for creating Buddhist sculptures. This chapter discusses the characteristics of Koryo Buddhist statues and limits its discussion mostly to Koryo Buddhist images in southern Korea. One of the notable characteristics of Buddhist sculptures produced during the early phase of the Koryo dynasty is the continuation of earlier traditions. While in the ninth century iron was often used for Buddha images in bodhyagriimudra, in the following period it was extensively employed for Buddha images in bhumisparsa mudra as well. The emergence of the new style was not a seamless departure from the idealistic mode of the Sokkuram Buddha, but rather a sudden change, which can be described as avant-garde.