Tuesday, April 22, 2003

Korean Buddhist Prayer Container, Analysis part 2 Buddhism emphasizes study, often of texts. These manuscripts and their creation (and storage -J.N.), are of much importance. (1) Thus, prayer text may be similarly considered. In Korea, during the Choson Period, 1392 (2), major Buddhist sutras were translated from Chinese and published in han-gul, the then new Korean script. Han-gul was used by the common people. (3) So manuscripts are an important part of Buddhism and used by many people from early on (not just the monastic elite) The common folk understand the importance of the manuscripts. One can see that a prayer container would be an object who's use is well known by people practicing Korean Buddhism. (So how come I can't find more examples...hmmm.....) 11:11:44 PM