[KS] (for Eckart Dege) - Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 99, Issue 7

[Ruediger Frank]

Dear all,
to follow up on Chusòk and Buddhism:
Of course a healthy dose of skepticism is advised when it comes to things that foreigners are allowed to see in NK. As long as there are just a couple of hundred of us in NK at the same time, we can be pretty sure that everything we see is more or less predetermined. However, and that's a big however, we should also not make the mistake to believe that everything is a fake. The trouble with central planning including "taking care" of foreigners is that it never works 100%. Not in production, not in politics, not in surveillance. I was for example able to take photos of things that I definitely was not supposed to see (like related to, how should I put it... pharmaceuticals). 
On Chusok and tradition: As you can read in "Korea 2008: Politics, Economy and Society", p. 35 (http://univie.academia.edu/RuedigerFrank/Papers/474257/NORTH_KOREA_DOMESTIC_POLITICS_AND_ECONOMY_2007-2008), tomb sweeping day (Chòngmyòng) had for the first time in recent years been a public holiday on April 4th, 2008 (interestingly, same for qingming in China). It had been marked before, but now North Koreans have a day off. The logic is simple: while in most European socialist countries, such customs were regarded as superstition and equaled with religion (i.e. something improper for a modern educated socialist citizen), the unrestricted promotion of nationalism in North Korea allows the state to allow or even promote customs that are traditional and thus an expression of the unique and 5000 year old Korean culture. Kim Il Sung even applied such a logic to markets (we Koreans had markets long before capitalism, so they are not a bad thing per se).
With religion, the issue is less simple. One point has already been made: thanks to its loss of political importance after 1392, Buddhism for the North Korean leaders has never had that status of anti-thesis as Christianity did. Moreover, in a pan-Asian logic it is more appropriate as "our" tradition as opposed to Christianity (a Western product). Correct me if I am wrong, but there is no anti-Buddhist propaganda in North Korean literature, at least nothing comparable to the nasty stories about child-slaughtering missionaries. True, some folk tales are preserved where Buddhist monks are drunkards and womanizers. But this is just the reproduction of Chosòn dynasty propaganda. 
As for my own experiences with Buddhist monasteries in North Korea, including Pohyònsa and others, at least we can say that rather than burning them down, they are being preserved. This was the case even when tourism from South Korea did not yet play a role and ordinary North Koreans had a chance to visit the beautiful spots of their own country. Why? My impression was that local people cared strongly for the monasteries. The donation boxes were always well filled, paint was fresh, trees cut, walkways clean and the grass kept short. A couple got its wedding picture in front of a stupa. Last year I talked to a monk at a monastery south of Pyongyang who clearly was not liked by my minders. They made fun of him and his life ("can you imagine, he doesn't even have a TV..."). He in turn made a few remarks that could well pass as signs of resistance against the system. I don't know who else is reading this, so I will not provide any details. But my strong impression was that he definitely was not an actor. Well, it's North Korea, you never know for sure.
On the Benedictines: The building of their abbey is still intact. It is now part of the University of Agriculture near Wònsan; of course my guides forgot to tell me this when I visited the place but it was pretty obvious that this neo-gothic building covered by ivy leaves was built before 1945. 
The Russian church: This clearly is a special case. It is fairly well documented that this was a purely political gesture. It was agreed during Kim Jong Il's last visit in Russia a decade or so ago in a talk with Mr. Putin. Konstantin Pulikowskij (former General, now ardent churchgoer) in his book recalls how Kim said: we will build such a church in our country. When Putin asked about believers, Kim said: don't worry, there will be believers. A gesture of friendship and goodwill, nothing more. But I guess the employees of the Russian embassy are nevertheless not unhappy about the church. 
A last remark: Having lived in the Soviet Union in the 1970, I was struck by the speed of recovery of the Russian Orthodox Church after 1990. The reasons are clear, of course - a dominant ideology gone, vacuum left, growing social inequality and distress: direct ways into religion. But if you consider how long and how heavily this religion has (allegedly) been persecuted - more than 70 years - it is simply amazing how much of it was preserved somehow. Maybe this lets us draw some parallels to Christianity in North Korea. So my guess is: hidden maybe, but not gone. And I agree that the mentioned churches in PY are Disneyland. Organized Christian communities would be regarded as a severe threat by the state and instantly persecuted. After all, the peaceful revolution in East Germany originated from the Churches.
Cheers,
Rudiger Frank
PS: Forgive me this lengthy remark; it's Sunday. The latter has, by the way, survived in all socialist experiments including NK...


on Samstag, 10. September 2011 at 23:33 you wrote:

> Prof. Dr. Eckart Dege is currently not subscribed 
> to the list and asked me to post the following 
> reply for him.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


> For a long time I also wondered how Chusok is observed in North Korea.
> Last time I visited North Korea during Chusok. Knowing that our
> interpreter was the eldest son, I asked him who would do the ancester
> rites on this day. He answered that his younger brother had to do them
> since he was on duty translating for us. Then I asked how the rites are
> performed in Pyongyang (where you don't find any graves). He explained
> that all people are cremated and the urns are stored in special buildings
> (one in each city precinct). On Chusok people go there, show a special
> identity card and get the urn(s) of their ancestor(s). These they take to
> a park, where they perform the ancestor rites and have a picnic. After the
> rites they return the urn. We observed many such family groups on
> Moran-bong.

> Now to the churches: there are four in Pyongyang, the Changchung Cathedral
> (Roman Catholic), the Pongsu Church (Protestant), the Chilgol Church
> (Protestant) and a new Russian Orthodox church at Tongil Street. I took
> part in Sunday services in two of these churches and did not have the
> impression that these services were a theatrical production for foreign
> tourists (in both cases I was the only foreigner). What struck me was the
> fact that during the service they took off their Kim Il-sung badges. When
> they went out after the service they put them back on.

> Happy Chusok,
> Eckart Dege




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