The Myth of The Stone Maitreya (Future Buddha) Standing Statue in Gwan Chock Sa

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I visited the Gwan Chock Sa to see the Stone Maitreya Buddha Standing Statue.

This Statue is believed as the biggest Buddha one in Korea.
According to the record, this statue had been built for 37 years from 968AD to 1006 AD.
The height is 18.12m with 9.9m around.
It was period of Koryeo Dynasty when this statue was built.

The origin and reason of building this statue was not known.
But there was a myth when it comes to the histoy of building this statue.,
Myth was like as below.
On day, a woman was collecting wild vegetables in this mountain, suddenly she heard baby crying. It was strange for her to hear a crying baby in the mountain, so she got closer to the place where a baby was crying.
But there was no baby, instead the great stone was coming up from the ground.

So she reported this thing to the officials. The Koryeo King ordered to the famous monk to build a Buddha statue with that stone.
The monk 'Hae Myeong' had started to build the Buddha statue.
He made lower part of the statue with coming up stone and made upper part with the stones near the mountain.
You could see the traces of working at the entrance of the Temple.

Finally the monk 'Hae Myeong completed the statue.

In the early period of Koryeo Dynasty, the Maitreya(future Buddha) was very popular. At that time people were suffered from continuing wars and poverty. So they wanted to be saved from present difficulties. Generals and Political figures named themselves of the Maitreya. The future Buddha was an only hope for common people.

To win the final political power, it was inevitable for them to acquire the support from people.

The time when this statue was built was early stage of Koryeo Dynasty, so Koryeo needed to strengthen the political basis using Buddhism, especially the future Buddha.

The Shape of the Maitreya was not sophisticated comparing to the former dynasty of Shilla's Buddha statues.

It was a mystery why the level of techniques were worse than before.

Anyway let's look at the Buddha statue.

At first, the balance was not perfect. Especially the face was so big.

Let's look closer the face

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The face of this statue is far from shape of Shilla dynasty's.
The Buddha statue of Shilla dynasty was so beatiful and excellent.

Some scholars explained the reson why the face was so big. It is said that this face was the proof of reflecting the traditional people's religion.

You need to focus the length of the ear. In oriental society, the shape of the ear was very important.
The long ear was a symbol of the virtues.

The crown was as same as the king's crown.

Thank you for reading.