Gilt-bronze Buddhist Plaques from Wolji
Late seventh to early eighth century
Ten small plaques of gilded bronze show Buddhas and bodhisattvas in relief, each figure seated or standing against a flaming halo pierced with openwork, the gilding still bright after twelve centuries in the mud. The largest shows a Buddha seated with legs crossed on a lotus throne, flanked by two attendant bodhisattvas who lean gently inward, all three framed by a mandorla of leaping flames. Others show single bodhisattvas with their hands raised in gestures of teaching and reassurance. They are tiny, delicate and among the finest small Buddhist images of the Unified Silla period.
The plaques were cast in moulds and then finished by hand with a chisel, and the quality of the chasing repays a close look: the folds of the robes, the strings of jewels across the bodhisattvas' chests, the individual petals of the lotus seats. Small holes in the halos show that they were once nailed to something, probably a wooden shrine or the panels of a portable altar, arranged in a group like the one on display. The style, with its full faces and swaying bodies, is close to Tang China and to the sculpture of the Seokguram grotto, made in the same generation.
They were recovered in 1975 when the Wolji pond was drained and excavated. The pond was dug in the year 674 for the palace of the crown prince, and its mud preserved everything that fell into it: wooden boats, roof tiles, dishes, tools, the wooden dice nearby and these plaques, which may have come from a private chapel in the palace. The whole Wolji Gallery is built around this excavation, and the plaques are its jewels. Find the case with the ten together and look at them from the side to see how deep the relief actually is.
Did You Know? The pond that preserved the plaques was known for centuries as Anapji, the pond of geese and ducks, until a roof tile inscribed with its real name, Wolji, was found in the mud.
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