2. Other Orders


There are many other Buddhist sects in Korea. Although they share identical philosophy, the teachings of the Buddha, they differ in the area on which they lay stress and in the choice of principle text. All are Mahayana sects and some incorporate tantric influences into their teaching. The second largest sect, T'aego, has mostly married monks. The Hwaom, Chonghwa and Wonhyo sects all stress the Flower Garland Sutra, Avatamsaka. The Pophwa, Purip and Ilsung, among others, concentrate on the Lotus Sutra. The Pure Land sect venerates the Lotus Sutra and the Pomun is the only all women Buddhist sect in the world.

Most of the Korean Buddhists sects were founded after the liberation from the Japanese in 1945. Since then Korean Buddhism has been changing rapidly: programs have been more diversified and education has been emphasized. Country and mountain temples have been attracting more and more people. Increasingly there are also more Buddhist places to go to in the cities. (In the past, during the persecution of Buddhism in the Choson Dynasty, temples were not allowed to be built in the cities.) Another activity is the translation of Buddhist texts from Chinese into Korean so that people can read them more easily and the recording of the texts. At present the entire collection of wood-blocks at Haein-sa Temple (see p. 159) is being put onto CDs and there is a plan for translation into English in the future.

In the area of education, many temples now have kindergartens or other schools attached to them. This is interesting because traditionally, in most Buddhist countries, young children learned to read and write from monks. One Buddhist University, Dongguk, has campuses in Seoul and Kyongju and there is a special university for monks and nuns called Sangha University.
Youth movements are greatly increasing. There are youth groups in schools and universities engaged in many special activities such as studying texts, traveling to different temples, reviving traditional folk dancing, and doing social work.