A on the Iconography of Standing Study Trikaya statue(Maaesamjonbul) in Taean Dongmun-ri

The relief of standing Trikaya statue(Maaesamjonbul) in Taean Dongmun-ri, located on 817-2 Dongmun-ri, Taean-eup, Taean-gun in Chungcheongnam-do, belongs to the early Baekje style comparatively. This relief, carved on the large rock-wall, is looking toward the East near the top of Mt.Baekhwasan, The knees of Tathāgata were buried under the ground. However, repairing and maintaining the cracked rock-face in 1995, the lotus plinth of the relief completely exposed, and then, the relief became the National Treasure No.307(31, August, 2004). The Taean Buddha relief has been regarded as the either of important workpiece with the Seosan standing Trikaya statue amongst the Baekje Buddha. Nonetheless, compared with its importance, research results were short of gilt-bronze Buddha in the Three Kingdoms Period. It seems that there were iconographic enigmas which cannot find such kind of examples in either China or Japan. Due to such iconography, it leads them into the originality of Baekje sculpture. Reviewing conventional research results, this thesis traced that the Taean Buddha relief was made in the late of the 6th century CE based on Bodhisattva Guanshiyin in the Lotus Sutra (beophwagyeong). Such consequence is merely reflecting the sum of former scholars survey results. Even though a variety of opinions were suggested, they were to compare with the trends of Baekje Buddhism at that time. As a result, the Taean Buddha relief was presumably constructed under the influence of the Lotus Sutra fashioned in the Baekje. Moreover, it should be understood on the extension of the Baekje Buddhism having the second prosperity those days.