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[caption id="attachment_151" align="aligncenter" width="187" caption="© Musée national de Corée / National Museum of Korea (NMK), Séoul"][/caption]« Praying for Good Fortunes: Buddhist Paintings in Three Sages Shrine » (« Solliciter des bienfaits : peintures bouddhiques dans les sanctuaires des trois Sages »)jusqu’au 26 août 2012L’exposition « Praying for Good Fortunes: Buddhist Paintings in Three Sages Shrine » (« Solliciter des bienfaits : peintures bouddhiques dans les sanctuaires des trois Sages ») présente une nouvelle sélection d’une quinzaine de peintures issues des collections du Musée national de Corée. Les trois Sages font référence à l’esprit des Sept étoiles (Grande ourse), à l’ermite Toksong et à l’esprit de la Montagne. Ils illustrent la façon dont le bouddhisme a intégré des croyances populaires dans son panthéon. Présentation de l’exposition en anglais :Three sages refer to Seven Stars, Hermit Sage, and Mountain Spirit, all of which are classic examples of how Buddhism incorporated traditional folklore beliefs into its pantheon. The painting of Seven Stars represents an amalgamation of Buddhism and astrological beliefs, in which the Buddha Blazing Abundant Brightness and the Seven Buddhas, respectively symbolizing the North Star and the Seven Stars, are portrayed. Hermit Sage, one of Buddhist saints, is rendered in the painting of Hermit Sage as an object of worship, to be prayed to for good fortunes. On the other hand, the Buddhist painting of Mountain Spirit represents the incorporation of traditional mountain spirit worship into Buddhism. They are usually enshrined in a small shrine hall located to the back end of the temple. When the three of them are all enshrined in one hall, it is called a three sages shrine, and when they are separately enshrined, they are respectively called a seven star shrine, a hermit sage shrine and a mountain spirit shrine.&#160;[caption id="attachment_152" align="aligncenter" width="297" caption="Sept étoiles, période Choson (1873), 206 x203 cm, couleurs sur soie © Musée national de Corée / National Museum of Korea (NMK), Séoul"][/caption]&#160;In the Buddhist spiritual hierarchy, the Seven Stars, Hermit Sage, and Mountain Spirit are positioned below Buddhas or bodhisattvas, thus occupying correspondingly smaller shrines and appearing in relatively modest paintings. To ordinary folk, however, the three sages were the beings they felt close to their hearts, granting longevity, begetting a son, wealth, wish fulfillment and any of their other worldly wishes. To the monastic community, their existence did help them to maintain a closer relationship with the ordinary folk. Seen this way, the paintings of the three sages shrine are Buddhist paintings of great interest, demonstrating Korean Buddhism’s embrace of folk beliefs and, at the same time, the mind’s timeless quest for wish-fulfillment, manifested in this case through Buddhist beliefs.&#160;SOURCE : Musée national de Corée, Séoul&#160;