Religion and Buddhism in Korea

Category: Culture & Society
Key figures: Wonhyo, Uicheon, Jinul, Yi Hwang, Kim Jae-jun, Billy Kim
Dominant traditions: Buddhism (Jogye Order), Protestantism, Catholicism, Muism (shamanism)

Summary

Korea’s religious history spans more than two millennia and layers shamanic substrate, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, and new religious movements in a complex ecology unlike any other in East Asia. Buddhism arrived from China in 372 CE and dominated Korean spiritual and intellectual life through the Goryeo period; the Joseon dynasty’s adoption of Neo-Confucianism beginning in 1392 marginalized Buddhist institutions, though popular devotion persisted. Christianity—both Protestant and Catholic—grew explosively in the 20th century and now rivals Buddhism in adherent numbers. Contemporary South Korea is a multi-religious society with no state religion, high levels of religious fluidity, and a striking penetration of both organized religion and secular values.

The 2015 South Korean census found that approximately 19.7% of the population identified as Protestant Christian, 15.5% as Buddhist, 7.9% as Catholic, and 56.1% as non-religious (many of whom practice elements of shamanism or folk religion without formal affiliation)—the first census in which Protestantism surpassed Buddhism as the largest organized faith. These numbers represent a seismic shift from the early 20th century, when Christianity was a minority faith, and reflect the convergence of Japanese colonial-era religious policy, American missionary influence after 1945, rapid urbanization, and the Korean spiritual hunger for community and meaning amid industrial modernity.

Buddhism in Korea: Arrival and Three Kingdoms Period

Buddhism reached the Korean peninsula during the Three Kingdoms period through two routes from China. According to traditional accounts, it arrived in the kingdom of Goguryeo in 372 CE, when the Eastern Jin monk Sundo brought scriptures and images to King Sosurim. The kingdom of Baekje received Buddhism from the monk Malananda in 384 CE. The kingdom of Silla was the last to adopt Buddhism, officially accepting it in 528 CE after the martyrdom of the court official Ichadon—who reportedly asked to be executed to demonstrate the faith’s power; his severed head reportedly emitted white milk rather than blood, convincing the court of Buddhism’s validity. This hagiographic account signals Buddhism’s entry into official Silla religion.

The Three Kingdoms era Buddhism absorbed and transformed indigenous shamanic beliefs: Buddhist temples were often built on sacred sites associated with mountain spirits (sanshin), and Buddhist monks took on ritual roles adjacent to shamans. This syncretism produced a distinctively Korean Buddhism in which animistic elements never fully disappeared.

See also: Three Kingdoms Period.

Unified Silla and the Great Scholastic Period (668–935)

Following Silla’s unification of the peninsula in 668 CE, Korean Buddhism entered its most intellectually productive phase. Two figures tower above all others:

Wonhyo (617–686)

Wonhyo is the most celebrated Buddhist thinker in Korean history, renowned both for his intellectual synthesis and his unconventional life. Born in 617 CE, he renounced his monastic vows after a night with Princess Yoseok, took the name “Little Obstruction” (Sosong Geosa), and continued to teach as a lay practitioner—traveling among common people rather than remaining in elite monasteries. His philosophical achievement was the hwajaeng (reconciliation) approach: he argued that the apparent contradictions among different Buddhist schools (Madhyamaka, Yogacara, Tathagatagarbha) pointed toward a single underlying truth. His Awakening of Faith Commentary became a foundational text studied across East Asia. He is credited with some 100 works, of which approximately 22 survive.

Uicheon (1055–1101)

Prince Uicheon, a son of King Munjong of Goryeo, became a monk and traveled to Song China to study Buddhist philosophy. He returned to found the Cheontae school (Chinese: Tiantai) in Korea, emphasizing the unity of doctrinal study and meditation practice. He also compiled the Goryeo Supplement to the Tripitaka, an enormous collection of Buddhist commentaries. His project of synthesizing doctrinal and contemplative traditions was influential but incomplete, setting the stage for Jinul.

Jinul (1158–1210)

Jinul (posthumous title Bojo Guksa) is the founder of the Jogye Order’s contemplative tradition and the most influential figure in the history of Korean Son (Zen) Buddhism. Unlike Uicheon, Jinul never traveled to China; his synthesis emerged from intensive reading of Chan texts available in Korea. His central doctrine was the “sudden enlightenment, gradual cultivation” (don-o jeom-su) framework: sudden awakening to one’s inherent Buddha-nature, followed by gradual cultivation to remove accumulated habits. He founded Songgwangsa Temple in South Jeolla Province as a center for this practice, establishing the template for Korean monastic Son Buddhism that continues today. His works—especially the Encouragement to Practice and Secrets on Cultivating the Mind—remain required reading in Korean Buddhist seminaries.

Goryeo Period: State Buddhism and the Tripitaka Koreana

During the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392), Buddhism was the state religion. Kings took Buddhist vows; major monasteries held vast landholdings and political power; Buddhist monks sat on the State Council. This was simultaneously the era of Korea’s greatest Buddhist artistic and literary production.

The signal achievement of Goryeo Buddhism was the Tripitaka Koreana (팔만대장경), the complete Buddhist canon carved onto 81,258 wooden printing blocks. The first carving was commissioned in 1011, during the Khitan invasion, as an act of national prayer; it was destroyed in the Mongol invasions. The second and surviving edition was carved between 1236 and 1251, again during the Mongol invasions, under a vow to secure divine protection. The blocks, averaging 24 inches (61 cm) long and 9.5 inches (24 cm) wide, contain approximately 52 million characters and represent the most complete and accurate version of the Buddhist canon in any language. They are stored at Haeinsa Temple on Gayasan Mountain (South Gyeongsang Province), where they have been preserved for over 750 years in specially designed warehouses with natural ventilation systems. The Tripitaka Koreana was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2007.

Goryeo Buddhism also produced some of East Asia’s finest Buddhist art: the Goryeo celadon ceramics (many depicting Buddhist imagery), gilt-bronze incense burners, and illuminated manuscripts (sagyeongjang). The Buddhist monk Hyesim (1178–1234) compiled the Seonmun yeomsong, a major anthology of Korean Son texts.

Buddhism Under Joseon: Marginalization and Persistence

The founding of the Joseon dynasty in 1392 under Neo-Confucian ideology fundamentally restructured Korean religion. The new state’s measures against Buddhism were systematic:

• Monks were prohibited from entering Hanyang (Seoul); the capital was declared a Buddhist-free zone.
• Temple lands were confiscated to fund Confucian academies (hyanggyo) and redistribute to yangban families.
• The many Buddhist sects were reduced to seven under Taejong and then merged in 1424 under Sejong into just two: the Doctrinal school (Gyo) and the Meditation school (Son).
• The monk registration system was used to conscript monks for labor on state projects.
• The social status of monks dropped; they were classified near the bottom of the commoner hierarchy.

Despite this suppression, Buddhism survived in popular practice, particularly in rural areas and among women (who had fewer access points to Confucian learning). Monks maintained their scholarly traditions in mountain monasteries beyond the immediate reach of the state. Buddhist nuns (bigu-ni) preserved devotional practice in communities largely invisible to official records.

The Imjin War (Japanese invasion, 1592–1598) briefly reversed Buddhist marginalization: monk-soldiers (seung-byeong) under leaders such as the great monk Samyeong Yujeong (1544–1610) and Seo San Hyujeong (1520–1604) played crucial roles in resisting the Japanese advance, leading guerrilla campaigns that harassed enemy supply lines. Their service was recognized and created a temporary rehabilitation of Buddhist standing, though the long-term trajectory of Joseon-era Buddhism remained one of institutional marginalization.

Japanese Colonial Period: Manipulation and Transformation

The Japanese colonial period (1910–1945) had contradictory effects on Korean Buddhism. The colonial government’s 1911 Temple Ordinance (Sachallyeong) brought Korean Buddhist temples under state control, registered them under Japanese administrative law, and—most controversially—permitted Buddhist monks to marry, following Japanese Buddhist practice rather than Korean celibate traditions. This introduced a permanent division in Korean Buddhism between married monks (taego-ga) and celibate monks (bigu), a conflict that exploded after liberation in 1945 and persists institutionally today.

The colonial period also saw the founding of several new religious movements (sinjonggyo) blending Buddhist, shamanist, and Christian elements, reflecting the spiritual searching of a society under occupation. The Cheondogyo movement (derived from Donghak), while not Buddhist, exemplifies this syncretism.

See also: Japanese Colonial Period.

Post-Liberation Buddhism: The Purification Movement and Jogye Order

After Korea’s liberation in 1945 and the Korean War (1950–1953), the celibate monks who had maintained the traditional monastic discipline sought to remove the married monks installed under Japanese colonial policy. This produced the Bul-kyo jeongwa undong (Buddhist purification movement) of the 1950s–1960s, a bitter institutional struggle involving court cases, occupation of temple buildings, and occasional violence. President Syngman Rhee sided with the celibate faction in 1954. The outcome consolidated into two main orders:

• Jogye Order (조계종): The dominant order, representing the celibate Son tradition; controls approximately 90% of Korean Buddhist temples. Named after Jogye Mountain (the site of Songgwangsa, Jinul’s temple), it maintains strict monastic discipline and is the institutional center of mainstream Korean Buddhism.
• Taego Order (태고종): The order accommodating married monks; significantly smaller but legally recognized.

The Jogye Order today oversees approximately 1,700 registered temples, 12,000 monks and nuns, and hosts the temple-stay program (Templestay) that has become a major cultural tourism attraction.

Christianity in Korea: Historical Roots and Explosive Growth

Catholic Christianity (Catholicism)

Catholicism arrived in Korea not through missionaries but through Korean scholars who encountered it intellectually in Beijing. Members of the annual tribute missions to the Qing court brought back Catholic texts from Jesuit missionaries in China. Yi Seung-hun (1756–1801) was baptized in Beijing in 1784 and returned to Korea to establish the first informal Christian community. The state’s violent suppression followed: the Sinyu Persecution of 1801 killed approximately 300 Catholics including Yi Seung-hun; the Gihae Persecution of 1839 killed the French missionaries Pierre Maubant, Jacques Chastan, and Bishop Laurent Imbert along with Korean converts; and the Byeongin Persecution of 1866 was the largest, killing approximately 8,000 Korean Catholics and 9 French missionary priests. These martyrs were beatified and some canonized by Pope John Paul II during his 1984 visit to Korea.

Korean Catholicism grew rapidly after the opening of Korea (1876) and especially after 1945. The Catholic Church in South Korea today has approximately 5.8 million adherents (as of 2020 estimates), operates the Catholic University of Korea, and maintains a significant presence in social welfare, education, and public intellectual life. The 2014 beatification of 124 Korean martyrs by Pope Francis during his Seoul visit drew a crowd estimated at around 800,000 to Gwanghwamun.

Protestant Christianity

Protestant Christianity arrived in Korea primarily through American missionaries beginning in the 1880s. The Medical Mission to Korea (1884) brought Dr. Horace Newton Allen; Horace Underwood (Presbyterian) and Henry Appenzeller (Methodist) arrived in 1885. Unlike Catholic missionaries who focused initially on elite converts, Protestant missionaries combined evangelism with education (founding schools and colleges) and medicine (founding hospitals), creating durable institutional platforms for growth.

The Pyongyang Great Revival of 1907 marked the first major breakthrough: starting from prayer meetings in January 1907 at Jangdaehyeon Church in Pyongyang, a revival spread across the peninsula that is credited with establishing the patterns of Korean Protestant practice—extended prayer meetings, emotional confession, early morning prayer services (sabyeok gido), and intensive Bible study. These patterns, often called “Korean Christianity” by missionaries who observed them, persist today.

Protestant Christianity found particular resonance because:

• Mission schools provided access to modern education and Japanese-language instruction during the colonial period.
• The March 1st Movement of 1919 (independence demonstrations) had significant Christian leadership, linking Christianity to Korean nationalism.
• After 1945, Protestant churches provided organizational infrastructure, social community, and ideological legitimacy during rapid urbanization.

South Korean Protestantism grew from roughly 500,000 adherents in 1945 to approximately 9.6 million by 2015, when census data showed it as the largest single religious category. South Korean churches became notable for establishing the world’s largest megachurches: Yoido Full Gospel Church, founded by David Yonggi Cho in 1958 and ultimately claiming 830,000 registered members, held that distinction for decades. South Korea has also become one of the world’s largest per-capita missionary-sending nations, with approximately 27,000 Protestant missionaries working in 170 countries as of 2020.

Korean Protestantism is theologically diverse but often theologically conservative (Calvinist Presbyterian denominations dominate), and split among dozens of denominations; the World Council of Churches estimates over 200 Presbyterian denominations in South Korea alone—a fragmentation reflecting both theological disputes and personality conflicts among charismatic leaders.

Shamanism: Muism and Folk Religion

Beneath and alongside the organized religions runs the deep current of Korean shamanism (Muism or Musok), perhaps Korea’s oldest spiritual tradition. Korean shamans (mudang, predominantly female; baksoo, male) perform gut rituals involving ecstatic trance, drumming, and communication with spirits (ancestors, mountain deities, river spirits) on behalf of clients seeking healing, fortune, or resolution of family conflicts. The gut ceremony is both ritual and performance: some last multiple days and involve elaborate costumes, music, and dance.

The state has alternately suppressed and accommodated shamanism. The Joseon dynasty regarded it as superstition; the Japanese colonial authorities sought to regulate it; the Park Chung-hee era (1960s–1970s) combined modernization campaigns that dismissed shamanism as backwards with nationalist cultural preservation efforts that belatedly recognized its value. Today, selected gut traditions are designated as National Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the Korean shamanistic arts are internationally studied.

Muism’s social function is distinctive: where Buddhism and Christianity address questions of salvation and transcendence, shamanism addresses immediate practical concerns—illness, business failure, family conflict, exam success—and provides psychological processing for grief and trauma through the death ritual (jeo-seung gut).

New Religious Movements

Korea produced several globally significant new religious movements in the 19th–20th centuries:

• Cheondogyo (1860): Derived from the Donghak (Eastern Learning) movement founded by Choe Je-u, blending Confucian, Buddhist, shamanist, and Christian elements. It was a major force in the March 1st Movement (1919).
• Won Buddhism (1916): Founded by Sotaesan Bak Jungbin (1891–1943), Won Buddhism modernizes traditional Buddhism with an emphasis on practice in everyday life rather than monastic withdrawal, and uses a simple circle symbol rather than a Buddha image.
• Unification Church (1954): Founded by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, it spread internationally and became controversial for its mass weddings and claimed messianic theology.

Contemporary Religious Landscape

South Korea today presents a striking paradox: high rates of formal religious identification alongside significant secularization among younger generations. The census shows steady growth in the non-religious category: from approximately 47% in 2005 to 56.1% in 2015, driven largely by young urbanites. At the same time, organized religion remains socially significant through institutional networks, educational institutions, and cultural events.

Religious tension exists between Buddhism and Protestant Christianity over historical grievances (destruction of Buddhist statues near churches, perceived state favoritism of Christianity during certain administrations) and over proselytization ethics. The government’s policy of religious neutrality has been tested by these conflicts.

Korean Buddhism has adapted to modernity through temple-stay programs, social media, and internationally recognized monastic training. The Jogye Order’s practice of public seated meditation (seon) draws non-Buddhist participants seeking psychological benefit. Buddhism’s cultural aesthetic permeates Korean visual art, music, and the temple-food cuisine tradition (sachal eumsik)—a vegetarian cooking tradition from monastic kitchens that has achieved international recognition.

Key Dates

Year	Event
372 CE	Buddhism introduced to Goguryeo by monk Sundo
384 CE	Buddhism introduced to Baekje by monk Malananda
528 CE	Buddhism officially accepted by Silla
617–686	Wonhyo: Korean Buddhism’s greatest synthesizer
1236–1251	Tripitaka Koreana second edition carved (81,258 blocks)
1392	Joseon dynasty adopts Neo-Confucianism; Buddhism marginalized
1784	Yi Seung-hun baptized in Beijing; Korean Catholicism begins
1801	Sinyu Persecution; first major Catholic martyrdom in Korea
1866	Byeongin Persecution: ~8,000 Korean Catholics killed
1885	Underwood and Appenzeller arrive; Protestant missions begin
1907	Pyongyang Great Revival; Korean Protestantism takes shape
1911	Japanese Temple Ordinance transforms Korean Buddhism
1954	Jogye Order reestablished; Unification Church founded
2014	Pope Francis beatifies 124 Korean martyrs in Seoul
2015	Census: 56.1% non-religious; Protestantism largest single denomination

Related

• Joseon Dynasty — the Neo-Confucian state that marginalized Buddhism.
• Goryeo Period — state Buddhism at its height; the Tripitaka Koreana produced.
• Three Kingdoms Period — Buddhism’s introduction to Korea.
• Japanese Colonial Period — colonial manipulation of Buddhist institutions.
• Korean Independence Movement — Christian and Cheondogyo leadership of the March 1st Movement.
• Education and Universities in South Korea — missionary schools as a foundation of modern Korean education.
• Hallyu (Korean Wave) — Buddhist temple aesthetics visible in Korean cultural exports.
• Korean Traditional Visual Arts — Buddhist sculpture and painting, from Seokguram to Goryeo scroll paintings.
• Gyeongju — the Silla Buddhist capital, home to Bulguksa and the Seokguram grotto.
• Chuseok — the harvest holiday whose ancestral rites express Confucian filial piety.
• Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism in Korea — the Confucian tradition that shaped Korean religious and ethical life alongside Buddhism.
• Baekje Kingdom — the kingdom that adopted Buddhism in 384 and transmitted it to Japan.

Sources

• Robert E. Buswell Jr., The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea (1992) — ethnographic study of Korean monastic Buddhism.
• Don Baker, Korean Spirituality (2008) — comprehensive treatment of Korean religious traditions including shamanism and Christianity.
• Grayson, James Huntley, Korea: A Religious History (2002) — standard scholarly survey of Korean religious history from earliest times to present.
• Yong-Bock Kim, ed., Minjung Theology (1981) — Korean Protestant political theology and democratization.
• Statistics Korea (KOSTAT), 2015 Population and Housing Census — religious affiliation data.