Since the South-West corner of the Korean peninsula has fewer and smaller mountains then the East side, a team of heavenly masons came down one night to carve one thousand Buddhas and one thousand stupas. These Buddhas and stupas would balance out the peninsula and save it from capsizing into the sea.
However, the rooster crowed, signaling the dawn, before these two were finished, and they still lay in place.
I’m interested in how the form of the Buddhas were decided by the shape of the rock, not necessarily by the artist. The rock already had the Buddhas within, it just took some chiseling away to reveal them!
Published by Ox Herder
My name is Joseph Bengivenni but I usually go by the moniker Ox Herder online.
I’m a Canadian artist, photographer, and writer who has been living in Korea since 2005. During that time, I developed a deep appreciation for Korea’s mountains and the ‘Sansa’, Mountain Temples, found within them.
In recent years, I’ve focused my efforts on documenting Korea’s official list of traditional temples and hermitages. Of the 991 on the list, I’ve currently visited 560 of them. I consider it my life-long pilgrimage. Follow me here or @oxherder.photography on Instagram as I continue this ongoing journey.
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Thereby giving hope to rockheads like me!
“it just took some chiseling away to reveal them” -that’s what Michelangelo used to say
so beautiful!