While Goguryeo was the first kingdom to establish Buddhism as the state religion, the kingdom of Shilla, though further removed from the Chinese lands, was remarkably zealous in its endeavor to adopt this new religion. Jinheung-Daewang 진흥태왕 of Shilla adopted Buddhism as the state religion and in doing so, compared himself to a Bodhisattva figure. Rulers comparing themselves to Bodhisattvas was not unusual at the time; Empress Wu of the Later Zhou / Tang Dynasty period of Chinese history compared herself to the Maitreya Bodhisattva.
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