Korea Dispatch

This from a Seoulite who has been attending the rallies regularly. One thing I’d like to say before you read this is that this is an example of why blogs are driving the media into a frenzy. You will never read something like this in the mainstream media here in Korea (not in English at least), all of which is wedded to a very narrow and one-sided view of the country. For those around the netizsphere wondering what the hell is going on in Korea, this is an excellent summary. 

Tonight I walked to City Hall at around 7:30pm and was disgusted by what I saw. A group at Ch’onggye Plaza was protesting human rights abuses in China, but all of 5 people were stopping to listen to a speech that was being made. Nearby, on the corner by Seoul Finance Center, another group was protesting against global warming and advocating green living and vegetarianism, but again nobody was even listening. Then I went to City Hall, and it was flooded by people listening to a monk give a speech about the need to renegotiate the beef deal. I’m sorry, but why is a vegetarian monk promoting eating beef at all? Shouldn’t he be calling for outright cancellation?

I left after a few minutes and spoke with the anti-global warming people once again. They had a large-screen TV showing how cows produce methane gas which in turn increases global warming. I spoke with the nice halmoni there for a while and asked her what she thought of the beef issue. At first she said she didn’t care because she was a vegetarian, but then after some prodding, she said, “Those people have low consciousness” and went on to talk about how traditionally Koreans didn’t even eat much meat, and that the cattle industry in both the US and Korea was harming the environment in serious ways. I agree with her completely. She ended by saying, “Those people don’t seem to really understand what’s going on in the world we live in. All I want to do is give some information about the Earth.” Too bad nobody really cared about what she had to say, because they were all too busy protesting their right to cram their faces with “safe” beef at City Hall.

On the participation of Buddhists, it seems pretty obvious that under a pronounced Evangelical administration, and with the entrance of the Korean Catholic Church into the fray, Buddhists are feeling the heat to portray their nationalism. See National officials try to calm top Buddhists in the JoongAng Daily.

You can’t hold Buddhists to a higher standard than Christians. They too are susceptible to political currents. They are an institution like the Church that must navigate religious doctrine with popular sentiment and political trends. Furthermore, in Korea they’ve been struggling to counter declining adherents, and what better way than to appeal to a popular cause. (Monks in Korea have long been active in nationalist movements, going back to the Imjin War of the 16th century. Non-violent my ass.)

There is a difference, however, between the institution and the individual monks and nuns that are a part of it. Korean Buddhism is incredibly fluid, open to interpretation. Monks and nuns continuously navigate between what is doctrinally correct and what is right to them. Eating meat is prohibited in the sutras, but then again right and wrong is a dualistic view of the world that goes against Zen thought.

Filed under: Korean Society, Politics, Seoul, buddhism, religion | Tagged: beef, buddhism, Korea, protests, vegetarians