Ever since their discovery, the stone Buddha statues at the Bijung-ri temple site in Cheongju were known as the Goguryeo style statues. However, as they were dated to the mid or late sixth century, various opinions have been suggested. Some propose that the statues are the works of Silla made in the Goguryeo style, mostly because the region belonged to the Silla during the period. Others think that various styles of the Three Kingdoms coexist in the statues. Since the statues are severely damaged, further study has not taken place with limited interest of the researchers. However, these statues are still important works as the productions of the Three Kingdoms period. The recent discovery of another Buddhist image on the rock surface of the Namha-ri temple site in Jeungpyeong near Bijung-ri makes it possible to consider the artistic trends in Cheongju region during the Three Kingdoms period in a more profound way. The Bijung-ri statues are important references with which we can shed new light on how the Three Kingdoms were active in the area of Cheongju during the sixth century. At the same time, they display the most archaic style, which makes them even more important in the study of Buddhist art history in Korea. For these reasons, this study focuses on the formal and stylistic analysis of the statues, and places the Bijung-ri statues in a larger context in order to compare them with other images made in contemporary China and the Three Kingdoms. As a result, this paper suggests that the Bijung-ri triad is relatively large in size, and that it is the second oldest statues in Korea after the gilt bronze Buddha statue from Ttukseom or the painted Buddha image in Tomb No. 1 at Jangcheon-ri in terms of iconography and style. In other words, several features of the statues lead us to conclude that they fully embrace the Northern Wei style, which f lourished during the end of the fifth or early sixth centuries: the combination of a seated Buddha image with abhaya and varada mudrās as a central figure and the Mount Sumeru type throne with lions which dates to the fifth century; the addition of the rather archaic style of a necklace with a small pendant and a water bottle to the bodhisattva image of the sixth- century fashion; the archaic style of a round halo with small manifested Buddhas on it. In the case of the standing Buddha statue, it also displays the archaic style in the same way. However, the sculpting technique looks too dull to the extent that the piece is regarded to have been made by Silla, who later conquered the region. Accordingly, the stone triad can be dated to the first half of the sixth century and produced by Goguryeo, as the archaic styles displayed by the statues were available only in the Goguryeo during the period, although no comparable examples exist. I think it is a reasonable conclusion because the style of the statue corresponds to the country of origin. Moreover, as for the antecedent Chinese statues that might have provided a model for the Bijung-ri statues, I propose that they are more closely related to the statues of the central region of the Northern Wei than those in the Shandong Province, with which scholars have compared Goguryeo gilt- bronze statues. Meanwhile, the Namha-ri images have been believed to be the works of the seventh- century Silla, as they are composed of a Buddha image with his right shoulder uncovered and the Pensive Bodhisattva images. However, Buddhist art of the Silla during the sixth century was not conspicuous enough even in its capital, Gyeongju, and thus it is more reasonable to see that Buddhist works of Cheongju region pertinent to the Silla’s northern expansion is the Namha-ri images. A comparison with the Namha-ri images also leads me to think that the Bijung-ri statues were created by Gogyryeo. As for the historical context, I propose that the Bijung-ri images were made during the period when Goguryeo ruled the region in a rather peaceful mode in the sixth century, a period which is yielded from the formal and stylistic analysis of the statues. All the analyses confirm that the Bijung-ri images are of great value in Korean Buddhist art history. They are the oldest extant Buddha stone statues in Korea, and at the same time help us to reconstruct a type of Goguryeo statues of early period, which no longer exists. Whereas all the extant seated Buddha statues of Goguryeo display meditation mudrā, Bijung-ri statues, along with the rock-carved Buddha image from Gageum-myeon in Chungju which is related to Goguryeo, are all with abhaya and varada mudrā s. This leads to the assumption that the latter type was also popular in Goguryeo. Related to this point, it is noted that that the rock-carved Buddha images in the northern part of the Gyeongsang Province such as those in Bonghwa and Youngju areas, the places upon which Goguryeo exerted its inf luence, could have been linked to Goguryeo. Furthermore, one should also consider the inf luence of Goguryeo statues on the establishment of the Tori style, which is one of the representative Buddhist art styles in the Asuka Japan. It is because many of the Tori style triads display the abhaya and varada mudrās, including the Shaka Triad (623) in the Golden Hall of Hōryūji temple. As for the background of mutual relationship, the great deal of exchange of personal and material resources between two countries and the presence of Hyeja, a Buddhist master from Goguryeo who served as the mentor of Price Shōtoku can be considered.