. esoteric buddhism under the chosn 657
Sŏn tradition were also ritual adepts, and several of them also wrote on
various aspects of Esoteric Buddhism. Until recently many Sŏn monks
were able to perform a wide range of Esoteric Buddhist rituals, includ-
ing the elaborate suryuk type of rites, and many had detailed knowl-
edge of the traditional practices associated with the empowerment of
images and stūpas.
Esoteric Buddhist art under the Chosŏn took on special forms that
do not really match that of contemporary China and Japan. In many
ways the Esoteric Buddhist iconography we find in Korea from the
period in question is less obviously “esoteric,” and beyond a few dis-
tinct images, such as the thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara and Cundī,
one has to understand most of the extant Esoteric Buddhist imagery
in the context of its rich ritual tradition where the Esoteric Buddhist
elements are quite obvious. Otherwise, many of the Esoteric Buddhist
figures in the Chosŏn Buddhist pantheon tend to blend harmoniously
with the dominant exoteric iconography to such an extent that one has
to look closely to identify them.
Esoteric Buddhism no longer has a strong presence in the Korean
Buddhist tradition. With the possible exception of the small Chin’gak
and Chinŏn sects, both of which in any case do not trans-
mit orthodox forms of Korean Esoteric Buddhism but an adapted form
of Japanese Shingon, very few serious practitioners can be found in
modern Korea. Most of those met with today are followers of Tibetan
Buddhism in some form or the other. This state of affairs is undoubt-
edly connected with the fact that the general mastery of ritual lore and
traditional Esoteric Buddhist doctrines and practices has degenerated
greatly in Korean Buddhism since the end of the occupation in 1945.
Especially in the Chogye school, Korea’s largest Buddhist order, where
meditation practice of the Sŏn variety and scriptural route of learning
tend to dominate, many traditional rituals have either been forgot-
ten or only exist in abbreviated and watered-down versions. Conse-
quently, many of those monks who chant mantras and dhāraṇīs today
often have little understanding of their meanings or even their original
purposes. We may here talk about some that are not lost in translation,
but lost in context.