[KS] A temple query (Insoo Cho)

Wed Aug 13 00:04:37 EDT 2014

As it is a new book (Buddhist Art of North Korea), I do not know  what photos of Seogwang-sa it has.But here is a postcard of that temple in 1920s.I think the temple in the picture (KBS #46) was not Seogwang-sa.Sung-Deuk Oak 
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 10:34:17 +0900
From: insoocho at gmail.com
To: koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com
Subject: Re: [KS] A temple query (Insoo Cho)

National Museum of Korea just released  a new book titled Buddhist Art of North Korea: Documentation in Gelatin Dry Plates. It is available at the museum's homepage (free PDF!): 
http://www.museum.go.kr/site/program/board/basicboard/view?menuid=001006007004&pagesize=8&boardtypeid=202&boardid=21083
 Based on those early photos, the temple that Weber visited is not Jang'an-sa (p.92-93). It looks similar to Seogwang-sa(p.110-111), but still different.
 Maybe a temple not in Diamond Mt but somewhere on route.If a specialist on Korean Buddhist art check it, he or she could identify the temple and the main hall with sculpture easily.
 best,Insoo ChoKorea National University of Arts

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Today's Topics:

   1. A temple query (Brother Anthony)

   2. Re: A temple query (Frank Hoffmann)

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Message: 1

Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 11:56:22 +0900 (KST)

From: Brother Anthony <ansonjae at sogang.ac.kr>

To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com>

Subject: [KS] A temple query

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In the set of rather fine photos from Abbot Norbert Weber's 1926 visit located at http://parasports.co.kr/317 there are 3 temple pictures, an overview, a group of monks, and the interior of a major hall. The captions say (perhaps following the KBS documentary) that the temple is Jangan-sa but of course it is not. Jangan-sa's main hall had a 2-tiered roof and its main altar was quite different . . . so does anyone know which temple this might be?

Brother Anthony

President, RAS Korea

------------------------------

Message: 2

Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 00:47:17 -0700

From: Frank Hoffmann <hoffmann at koreanstudies.com>

To: koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com

Subject: Re: [KS] A temple query

Message-ID: <20140811004717791091.9dabb463 at koreanstudies.com>

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Yes, you might be right, but not sure. It COULD be Changan-sa ??? as

KBS (or the blogger) states. I think we would need to see a picture

taken FROM that little bridge on the right in order to know more. The

"2-tiered roof" of the main hall you mention is indeed not to be seen,

at least not from that view.  But first of all, these three pictures

were not all taken in 1925 or 1926, if any of them were. The group

portrait, for example, was either taken on 20 April, afternoon, or the

morning of 21 April 1911, during Weber's first visit, and not in the

north but at some smaller temple close to the American gold mine

Chiksan ?? in Chungch?ngnam-do. Close means here within 5 waking

hours, in the mountains/hills.

The other two pictures seem familiar, but I am not sure either (also do

not have the books with me I would need to find them). Again, these

other two images could be from the same or from two different places --

very unlikely from that same small monastery in Chungch?ngnam-do just

mentioned. If from K?mgang-san, there were 34 monateries and temples.

But that 'altar' as well as the birds-eye view photo could, because of

the size, only depict one of the four great temples of K?mgang-san.

Apart from Changan-sa there are (or were) Pyohun-sa ???, Singye-sa ?

??, and Yuj?m-sa ???. I would exclude all of them but Yuj?m-sa.

So, **if** this is in K?mgang-san then it is very likely Yuj?m-sa,

which was in structure rather close to Changan-sa (thus I understand

the mix-up KBS produced).

By the way, Weber wrote another beautiful book just about K?mgang-san,

_In den Diamantbergen Koreas_ [In the Diamond Mountains of Korea] (St.

Ottilien: Missionsverlag, 1927). I suggest to check that as well, if

you have it around. (I do not.) It has lots of his watercolors and some

photos. You might well find the posted pictures published in there.

Unfortunately, he was rather uninterested in Buddhism and Korean

culture, so his writings do not provide many insights when it comes to

culture. But as a jet-setter of his time, one that thought of himself

as a "scientist" and "ethnographer" and good colonialist for the Kaiser

(until that pipe dream burst in 1918/19), he used his power and time

for all these photographic and film documentaries -- and was fired soon

after he returned from this trip, as it was just a little too much for

his Bavarian order.

Best,

Frank

On Mon, 11 Aug 2014 11:56:22 +0900 (KST), Brother Anthony wrote:

> In the set of rather fine photos from Abbot Norbert Weber's 1926

> visit located at http://parasports.co.kr/317 there are 3 temple

> pictures, an overview, a group of monks, and the interior of a major

> hall. The captions say (perhaps following the KBS documentary) that

> the temple is Jangan-sa but of course it is not. Jangan-sa's main

> hall had a 2-tiered roof and its main altar was quite different . . .

> so does anyone know which temple this might be?

>

> Brother Anthony

> President, RAS Korea

>

>

--------------------------------------

Frank Hoffmann

http://koreanstudies.com

End of Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 134, Issue 6

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