[KS] Naksansa tragedy & fire prevention in temples

Professor Junghee Lee dilj at pdx.edu
Fri Apr 8 19:52:34 EDT 2005


Hi:

I think because the Buddhist temple own the temples and the government cannot do
much about the properties of religious institutions.
When I tried to look at the objects in the collection of Buddhist temples,
government could not help me.
They did not have much power over it.

Best,

Junghee Lee
Department of Art
Portland State University
PO Box 751
Portland, OR  97207-0751, USA
voice 503-725-3347
fax 503-725-4541
e-mail: dilj at pdx.edu


인용 Johanna  Kuhn-Osius <jkuhnosius at fulbrightweb.org>:

> Greetings to all list members,
>
> I was also deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the fate of Naksansa.
> Immediately following the fire I combed the Korean news on the net and was
> rather surprised to find that, rather than articles condemming the Ministry
> of Culture and Tourism, whose responsibility it is to preserve cultural and
> historic sites, for their failure in preventing such a tragedy (through fire
> breakers, as Brother Anthony mentioned, for example), I found only articles
> that seemed to applaud the government for having agreed to cover the complete
> expenses of rebuilding the temple.  I felt that these articles really were
> missing the point.
> I don't understand why the Ministry doesn't do more, and so I'm wondering if
> anyone on this list can shed some light on the matter.  Is it that the
> temples don't want the government snooping around and installing things in
> their sacred sites? Is is apathy on the part of the Ministry?
> Also, does anyone know if many old, historical temples are actualy protected
> by fire breakers or sprinkler systems? I've never asked anyone about it or
> looked for sprinker systems during temple visits, but I also don't recall
> ever having seem a sprinkler system in a Korean temple.
> Thanks.
>
> regards,
> Johanna Kuhn-Osius
>
>




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