동국대학교박물관 소장 백지금니대방광불화엄경보현행원품

The Means of the Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva of the Avatamsaka Sutra Written in Gold on White Paper, Dongguk University Museum

“The Means of the Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva of the Avatamsaka Sutra Written in Gold on White Paper”, which is part of the collection of the Dongguk University Museum, is a copy of a chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra written in gold on white mulberry paper. It was produced in 1390 by the monk- scribe Huisun Gosan under the patronage of a group of devout Buddhists including Gang U-chun, who was then serving as a minister of the Goryeo dynasty. The remaining copy starts from the hymn in the second half of Fascicle 40 of the 40-fascicle Avatamsaka Sutra. This handwritten copy of the sutra consists of two pages of scriptural illustration, twenty pages of sutra text, and two pages of prayer, but it is missing its covers. The frontispiece contains two scenes, of which the one on the right depicts the Tripitaka Master Prajna translating a Buddhist scripture, while the one on the left shows Samantabhadra Bodhisattva giving a sermon to Sudhana. Of the many scriptural illustrations produced in the Goryeo period, this is the only example to depict a scene showing a translation of a Buddhist sutra. The scrollwork lying across the knees of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, as depicted on the left of the frontispiece, shows certain characteristic features of the sutras copied in the fourteenth century. At the end of “The Means of the Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva of the Avatamsaka Sutra Written in Gold on White Paper” there is a prayer written on two pages, which provides information about when and by whom the sutra was copied. This particular handwritten sutra is a considered a significant historical documentary heritage in that it retains the record of its production date and also provides insights into the trend of sutra copying with scriptural illustrations in Korea in the fourteenth century and the development of the tradition.