| Heavenly-Protection Mountain: North Jeolla's Cheon-ho-san |
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| Cheon-ho-san lies on the remote eastern side of Iksan City, an industrial center in the north-eastern corner of North Jeolla Province. There have been Buddhist temples here since the Baekje Dynasty, tho every building now found there is post-Korean-War. At Munsu-sa [Boddhisattva of Wisdom Temple] I found a new Sam-shin-gak with a very nice old San-shin painting framed behind a cheap gaudy statue. Those black flying things are butterflys! |
| At Baek-un-sa [White Clouds Temple] this top-quality antique San-shin and Deok-seong matched-set were discovered in the unusual new two-storey Sam-shin-gak (the lower floor seems used as residence for worshippers doing multi-day Spirit-prayers). The leapord-spots on this tiger are vivid, totally replacing any stripes. The fan held by Deok-seong is very refined, delicate, feminine -- seems Chinese. It's quite unusual for him to hold a fan at all. The two figures are in identical postures. |
| At Baek-ryeon-am [White Lotus Hermitage], a sub-temple of Baek-un-sa, San-shin wears a Chinese-style red cap and a blue robe (both quite unusual) and is reading a book! (extremely rare outside of North Kyeongsang Province). I don't know if this book is intended to be a Buddhist Sutra or other sacred text; the elderly nun there could not tell me. The dongja-boy holds a leaf-fan. In the Seven-stars-spirit painting (right), the North-star Spirit boasts an extrordinary elongated head, kind of breast-like, while wearing a Taoist cloud-shawl. |
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| At the small Beom-il-jeong-sa in the western entranceway to Cheon-ho-san, the rather strange San-shin painting is enshrined right next to Mireuk-bosal [the one who will come as a Buddha in the future] -- again giving San-shin equal status with Buddhism's highest deities. Compare with the statue near the bottom of this page. |
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| The small neo-shamanic Cheon-il-sa [Heaven-First Temple] is way up the mountain on a really steep bad dirt road, very difficult to get to! Inside the shabby Main Hall, a good San-shin painting features one of the boy-dongjas offering a unique golden rooster-head teapot. In front to the right is a bronze statue of Jijang-bosal, the Boddhisattva who rescues suffering souls from Hell. On his right is the Chil-seong painting; you can just barely see the North-Star Spirit next to Jijang's face. Outside (Left photo) we can see a group of Korean women gathered for San-shin worship at the cliff-front shrine. |