The Artistic Beauty of the Four Heavenly Kings

The ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ are the guardian deities who protect the Buddhist world and ward off evil forces. Most Buddhist temples in Korea have statues or paintings of these deities at their entrance, since they’re believed to enforce Buddhist doctrines and protect the temple.

But the ones in this temple are regarded as the best works among all the other statues of the Four Heavenly Kings made in the Joseon period. Overall, the bodies are well-proportioned, and the sleeves look like they’re blowing in the wind. As for details, the wrinkles on their face and the patterns on their clothes are very exquisite. Besides of the artistic quality, the discovery of the exact year of the work has further added to the value of this artwork.

The statues were covered in dust when an art school student found and wrote a thesis on them in 1994. It drew the attention of the academia, and they carried out a repair work on them. During the repair work, they found some words inscribed on one of the statues. Take a look at the statue holding a pagoda on your left. A sentence on the head of the statue shows that it was built in 1649.

At the time, King Injo had Songgwangsa Temple completely restored for the sake of the impoverished nation soon after a war against China. He also hoped Buddha would help his kingdom. They’re designed to look powerful and combative, partly to evoke a sense of patriotism among people.