Korean Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen: Hidden Histories, Enduring Vitality

By: Eun-Su Cho

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Synopsis: Explores the roles of Korean Buddhist nuns and laywomen from the Koryo period to the present. Uncovering hidden histories, this book focuses on Korean Buddhist nuns and laywomen from the fourth century to the present. Today, South Korea's Buddhist nuns have a thriving monastic community under their own control, and they are well known as meditation teachers and social service providers. However, little is known of the women who preceded them. Using primary sources to reveal that which has been lost, forgotten, or willfully ignored, this work reveals various figures, milieux, and activities of female adherents, clerical and lay. Contributors consider examples from the early days of Buddhism in Korea during the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla periods (first millennium CE); the Koryŏ period (982–1392), when Buddhism flourished as the state religion; the Chosŏn period (1392–1910), when the Neo-Confucian Court actively suppressed Buddhism; and the contemporary resurgence of female monasticism that began in the latter part of the twentieth century.