National Museum of Korea to hold name contest for two gilt-bronze Buddhist statues

연합뉴스 / 2021-08-25 11:30:43

▲ This file photo, shows the two Gilt-bronze Pensive Maitreya Bodhisattva statues, which are currently referred to as the national treasures No. 78 (left) and No. 83 (right). (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- As the designation number for the national treasure "Gilt-bronze Pensive Maitreya Bodhisattva" has been virtually abolished, there hasn't been a way to distinguish or label the cultural asset.

In order to resolve this issue, the National Museum of Korea announced Wednesday that it will hold a competition to label the two Gilt-bronze Pensive Maitreya Bodhisattva statues, which will be displayed on the second floor of the 440 square meter permanent exhibition hall from Oct. 28.

The two gilt-bronze Buddha statues so far have been referred to as National Treasures No. 78 and No. 83.

However, as the Cultural Heritage Administration began the process of abolishing the cultural heritage designation number to eliminate the misunderstanding of cultural heritage ranking, the official names of the cultural heritages were identified as "National Treasure Gilt-bronze Pensive Maitreya Bodhisattva."

Although the Cultural Heritage Administration stated to distinguish the two statues by using the storage area and designated date, but both Buddhist statues are located at the National Museum of Korea and were designated as the national treasure on December 20, 1962.

Amid continuous arguments over the region and period of when the two statues were created, there is currently no way to distinguish the two cultural assets.

"We plan to make the two gilt-bronze Pensive Maitreya Bodhisattva statues as the museum's representative brand. We have also organized a contest to provide the national treasures with a name that is friendly but also expresses the symbolic characteristic of the artifact," an official from the National Museum of Korea said.

For those who want to participate in the contest, applicants need to decide on a name for each statue and provide an explanation behind the meaning the selected name. The length of the writing should be within one A4 page.

The museum will award a total of 21 people. The grand winner will be given a cultural gift certificates worth 1 million won and seven kinds of miniature Pensive Bodhisattva statues. The results will be announced in October.

(END)