A quick survey of the 133 extant paintings of the Goryeo Kingdom (936-1332) discloses a seemingly pre-occupation of the afterlife and how to arrive there in proper Buddhist fashion. Of these 133 paintings, 110 depict the Western Paradise (Buddhist heaven) as a landscape; ``Amitabul’’ (Amida, Lord of the Western Paradise) arriving with the bodhisattvas ``Guanseum’’ (Avalokitesvara) and ``Taeseji’’ (Mahasthamaprapta) to accompany the believer to this paradise; Guanseum alone, usually in the transformation of this bodhisattva as regent of the island Potala; and Jijang (Ksitigarbha), the bodhisattva who succors those in hell. Were the people of the Goryeo Kingdom, then, obsessed with their post-mortem fates?
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