By Kim Hyelin and Hahm Hee-eun
Photo = Kim Sunjoo
Video = Choi Tae-soon
Seoul | May 23, 2018

To celebrate Buddha’s 2,562nd birthday, various Dharma Ceremonies were held across Korea. Among them, one of the largest ceremonies took place at Seoul's Jogyesa Temple, the center of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.

The Dharma Ceremony on “the day when the Buddha came” is not only celebrated by monks, nuns and devout Buddhists across the country, but also by the diplomatic corps in Korea, political officials and neighborly religious organizations, such as Roman Catholic or Protestant churches. They gathered to celebrate the birth of Buddha, to pray for world peace and to practice charity.

A special point this year was that the official name of the holiday was changed from “Buddha’s Birthday" (seokga tansinil, 석가탄신일) to “The Day When the Buddha Came" (Bucheonim osin nal, 부처님오신날).





Jogyesa Temple was crowded with people who came for the ceremony starting early in the morning. People with bright faces greeted each other by putting their palms together, and tied their prayer messages to the many lotus lanterns displayed around the temple. They took photographs with their family members and friends in front of the sculptures and electronic notice boards that had this year’s core message on them: “Make this world beautiful through wisdom and benevolence.”

More than 10,000 people, including Buddhist leaders, such as Ven. Jinje, the supreme patriarch, and Ven. Seol Jeong, the general secretary of the Jogye Order, and political officials, such as Chung Sye-kyun, chairman of the National Assembly, Do Jonghwan, minister of culture, sports and tourism, members of the diplomatic corps in Korea and others attended the ceremony. In particular, the presence of representatives of victim families of the Jeju April 3 Incident, representative of the dismissed female workers onboard KTX trains, and LGBT rights leaders, attracted attention.



The Dharma Ceremony was followed by the Buddhist "mental cleaning service" (doryang gyulgye, 도량결계의식), to help clean spaces and tidy the mind, a yukbeop gongyang (육법공양) to present six offerings to Buddha, a gwanbul (관불), to bathe the baby Buddha, a congratulatory prayer by Jogyesa Temple’s own Ven. Juji, and an award-ceremony for devout Buddhists. After that, congratulatory speeches were made by general secretary Ven. Seol Jeong, there were messages from President Moon Jae-in, a dharma speech by Ven. Jinje, and the recitation of a joint inter-Korean prayer.

The key topic of the dharma speech and congratulatory messages was solidarity and peace on the Korean Peninsula, reflecting the recent Inter-Korean Summit and the planned U.S.-North Korea summit.

Ven. Jinje, the eldest monk of the Jogye Order, emphasized through his dharma speech that, "Let's remove the conflicts and distrust in our minds, and instead understand and care for each other, to recover solidarity in Korea."

General Secretary the Ven. Seol Jeong also referred to the Panmunjeom Declaration in his congratulatory speech. He said, "The long winter of division has passed, and now the spring of peace has come. The blooming energy of coexistence that we have accomplished will spread to the world through the U.S.-North Korea summit.”



Exceptionally at this year’s ceremony, a joint inter-Korean prayer, which has been adopted together with the Korea Buddhist Federation from North Korea each year since 2015, was unveiled to the public. The inter-Korean Buddhist community emphasized in the joint prayer that, "The historic Panmunjom Declaration confirmed the self-reliant principle of this country. In other words, the fate of our people will be determined by ourselves. The Panmunjeom Declaration is a signal for a new start of history. It will connect the formerly broken relationship, and will become a historic milestone for a new era of self-reliant reunification.”



Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Do Jonghwan read a congratulatory message on behalf of President Moon Jae-in, saying that, "Buddhism is itself a precious spirit and culture for people here, and goes beyond the concept of religion. Pasa hyunjeong (파사현정, 破邪顯正), a norm that corrects wrong doings and which practices justice, the charity practice (자비행, 慈悲行), which treasures all forms of life and humans, have both become driving forces for maturing our society and developing democracy.”

President Moon, currently visiting Washington, D.C., for a U.S.-Korea summit at the White House, emphasized that, “In order to start a new era of peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, I hope that we can all wish for binja ildeung (빈자일등, 貧者一燈), a single lamp lit by a poor person.”

At temples across the country, including Jogyesa Temple and Bongeunsa Temple, various events were held to celebrate the day when Buddha arrived on earth. With the start of the Dharma Ceremony, Buddhists and many others enjoyed the day with music concerts, family talent shows and charity events.