Buddhism grew during Shilla period academically and culturally -Prof. CHOI SANG BEOM, Dongguk University, Kyongju, Korea

I am the Vice President of the Kyongju Campus which is under the Dongguk University and is based in Kyongju.

My friend seated with me is Kim Sun-Jeong, a doctoral degree holder and Professor of Law. He is also associated with this campus.

Kyongju campus, let me assert, it is one of the largest Buddhist school in the world. Kyongju has Buddhist roots from centuries and centuries back. The next two years will see the Hundredth anniversary of the foundation of this University.

What should be made clear to you is that the main part of this campus is in Seoul, which, I suppose; you will visit later this week.

We have altogether thirteen thousand under graduate and one thousand graduate students studying here. The majority of the graduate students studying Buddhism go to continue their studies in Seoul, the capital of Republic of Korea.

We have ten different departments in this campus. Of them, include among others, departments of Buddhism, natural science, social science, and oriental medicine. The school is better known for its Oriental Medicine department.

In the Buddhism department, lots of monks from various friendly countries come here to study the evolution of Buddhism.

We should have monks from Nepal as well, however, the fact is that your government has so far not been in contact with our school through the diplomatic channels. If we are approached for this, we can provide some seats. After all, lord Buddha was born in your country. From South Asia, we have some monks from Sri Lanka.

Kyongju was the capital of the famous Shilla dynasty and this dynasty had very strong links and roots of Buddhism. This makes it natural that a school that teaches Buddhism should be located here.

A rough estimate would have it that our University is having sisterly relations with hundred plus universities of the world. This means that our reach and approach is worldwide.

Throughout the United Shilla period, Buddhism continued to prosper and grow, academically and culturally. This was the time of creation of some of the finest Korean arts—the main temples of Korea were made; pagodas were erected; beautiful statues fashioned—all of this was of profound significance to the country's Buddhist heritage. The famous rock of the Buddha in the Sokkur-am cave in Kyongju, was carved in 732. Today it still evokes a sense of wonder and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The arts flourished in Shilla period. A huge temple, Hwangnyong-sa was built and it became the center of Buddhism for the Shilla. During this period three statues of Buddha were built in the 35th year of the reign of King Chinhung. They were cast from 34,000 kgs of gold and iron that had been sent in a big vessel by the Indian King Asoka, who during his reign unified most of India for the first time.

It would not be out of place to mention here that a lot of progress was made by Korean Buddhism during the unified Shilla kingdom period. Two scholars, who were supposedly colleagues and close friends, went to China a couple of times. Out of these two scholars, Won-hyo and Uisang, Won-hyo developed his major consciousness only enlightenment experience. Later on he decided to abandon his original monk attire. It is told that he produced an huge amount of scholarly works on every aspect of Buddhist doctrine, which had supposedly been transmitted to Korea.

The main theme of his works was that of proof at the most fundamental level of understanding of the lack of conflict in the apparently divergent doctrines of the various schools of Buddhism that had developed in China and India.

As of Nepal, well we have little information about Nepal. We at this campus are listening for the first time that your country too would wish to establish a Buddhist university. That's a good idea indeed. If Nepal needs any support from us during the draft of a new curricula for the University, we will be more than willing to come to your support. However, formal approach has to be made through appropriate channels.

By the way, Professor Kim has visited Nepal in the year 2001. We knew about Nepal from him.

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