Buddha

This statue is one of the twenty-five Buddha statues found in 1953 at the Suksusa Temple site in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, where Sosu Confucian Academy is currently located. The body of the Buddha and the pedestal are composed as one, and the gilding is relatively intact. On top of the bald head is an uṣṇīṣa, the eyes are gently closed, and the mouth wears a subtle smile. The neck is quite long. The robe covers both shoulders, its folds drooping in U-shape patterns in concentric oval lines. In a slight deviation from the common composition of the robe folds, the ones here are made to lean to one side. The right hand is in an abharanda mudra, with the palm held up and the left palm facing downward in a verada mudra. While the hands of most of the Buddha statues from the Three Kingdoms Period are exaggerated, the hands of this statue are in natural proportion with the body. On the pedestal are engraved lotus flowers. The end of each petal is sharp.
The proportions, robe style, and the pedestal form all indicate that the statue was modeled on the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou influences. With such an outstanding composition, the statue serves as an invaluable example of the Buddhist sculpture of early Silla.