It was during the Unified Silla Period that the worship of Bhaisajyaguru Buddha, or Medicine Buddha, began to spread widely across Korea. Most of these early Bhaisajyaguru Buddha statues with a medicine jar in his hand were enshrined independently, but some of them were made to be one of the four guardians of the four cardinal directions, guarding the east. This statue does not have a medicine jar, but the cupped left hand reveals that it once held a jar which had been made separately.