What does it make a buddha image into a buddha? This question has been hotly discussed since the 1990s centering on the installation ritual of Buddhist images in Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism or on the objects yielded from inner recesses of Chinese and Japanese Buddhist images. There are few textual evidences for such rituals for Chinese and Japanese examples, making it difficult to examine scriptural basis or doctrinal background of them. In contrast, the Korean tradition of bokjang or the practice of interring objects within Buddhist images provides us a rare opportunity to compare a ritual manual called Josang gyeong with extant bokjang deposits yielded from Goryeo and Joseon Buddhist statues. The distinctive composition of the bokjang, shown in both the ritual manual and remaining objects, has led scholars to characterize this important ritual tradition as a unique product of Korean Buddhism. Most Korean scholars define bokjang as consecration, a ritual to invest a material image with sacred presence of the divine. This view accords well with a pervasive explanatory model in the Western academia that often describes the consecration as a ritual tool to animate, enliven, or empower an inert image.(이하 생략)

『妙吉祥平等?密最上觀門大敎王經 Miaojixiang pingdeng mimi zuishang guanmen dajiaowang jing』, T1192 『佛說陀羅尼集經 Foshuo tuoluoni ji jing』, T901 『佛說一切如來安像三昧儀軌經 Foshuo yiqie rulai anxiang sanmei yigui jing』, T1418 『造像經 Josang gyeong』