612 henrik h. sørensen(see Chŏn 1990, 47–64). In any case, the printed mandalas that have
been recovered from a number of Koryŏ images functioned foremost
as powerful, spiritual symbols in which the entire Buddhist cosmos,
the Dharmadhātu with all its divinities and protective spells, are inte-
grated. In this way the mandalas served as a sort of “compressed” talis-
man, in effect a chart of power. Similar “compressions” were used in
cases where, instead of placing holy scriptures inside a given image, a
contents list of the entire Buddhist canon could also be put inside a
pokchang.^53 In contrast, the mandalas and dhāraṇī-charts used in the
CSK’s pentad format reveal an integrated and highly structured type
of empowerment ritual.Esoteric Buddhist Art and Material Culture under the KoryŏDespite the fact that Esoteric Buddhist rituals were performed with a
relatively high frequency at and for the Koryŏ court throughout the
dynasty, extant examples of Esoteric Buddhist art from the period in
question, especially votive images and paintings, are generally wanting.
When compared with the court of Heian Japan, where Esoteric Bud-
dhism and its rituals enjoyed an equally prominent status and from
which period a rich heritage of Esoteric Buddhist art has survived, the
situation for the Koryŏ is peculiar indeed. This anomaly is not easy to
explain; however, a survey and analysis of the surviving material may
go some way towards a plausible explanation for this situation.
Koryŏ sculptures with a clear Esoteric Buddhist affiliation are very
small in number and generally do not feature a particularly distinct
Esoteric Buddhist iconography. Images of the unadorned Vairocana
Buddha with his hands held in the vajramuṣṭī-mudrā are known, but
often their contexts are exoteric in nature, that is, the images in ques-
tion were made for one of the other schools of Korean Buddhism such
as the Sŏn or Hwaŏm denominations (Hwang 1988, 71, 74, 217–218).
During the fourteenth century, towards the end of the dynasty, the
influence from Sino-Tibetan art from Yuan China was felt in Korea,
and for obvious reasons these reveal a more distinct Esoteric Buddhist
iconography as well as style.^54 Even so, no examples of tantric images
(^53) For the role of talismans in Esoteric Buddhism see Robson, “Talismans in Eso-
teric Buddhism,” in this volume.
(^54) For these images cf. Hwang 1988, 76, 84, 218, 219. See also Koryŏ mal Chosŏn
cho ŭi misul 1996, 35, pls. 41–43. A general description of these images can be found
in Chin 1997, 530–44.