| Title |
Upon the Acceptance of Faith of Dragon, Study on Building Design of the Buddhist Temples in the Late Period of the Chosun Dynasty |
| Authors |
Kim Hyeon-Jung ; Cheon Deuk-Youm |
| Keywords |
Faith of Dragon ; Dragon Design ; Buddhist Temples ; Buddhist Sanctum |
| Abstract |
While Buddhism dominated politics and culture and Confucianism was accepted as a new political philosophy of governance, a faith of dragon was combined with other religions, but accepted to country and civilians as a religion itself by performing ritual for rain and rite and festivals for big catch of fish. Although Buddhism was intimidated by Confucianism in Chosun dynasty, it always secured its place. As we look back into our history, upon disaster or crisis of country or town, an existence of god of dragon was emerging as indigenous religion at any time. A dragon as a symbolic decoration in temple means a symbol of the high-dimensional world which combination of Shamanism and Buddhism produced. After war between Korea and Japan, a scripture of dragon was used in the buildings of Buddhist temples and showed a clue to the identity of indigenous religion in the process of combination of the indigenous religion and Buddhism. As it was interlinked with a historical situation in the late period of Chosun, a decoration of dragon was shown differently based on region and time. In terms of time, in the beginning, the decoration of dragon was simple, but they tried to show almost entire form in the construction. In the middle, a disciplined and dignified image of dragon was presented and a high quality piece of art in sculpture. In the late stage, although the engraving art is very delicate and graceful, the upright image was gone and appeared vulnerable as it reflected the chaotic period in the late period of Chosun. |