The Korean Buddhist Ritual for the unborn dead, which becomes popular in South Korea since the second half of the 1990s, doesn't belong to traditional Buddhist death ritual. The traditional ritual, which is usually held at the request of family member ...
The Korean Buddhist Ritual for the unborn dead, which becomes popular in South Korea since the second half of the 1990s, doesn't belong to traditional Buddhist death ritual. The traditional ritual, which is usually held at the request of family members of the deceased, focuses on the dead who as proper community member died under normal or natural circumstance. Even in case of wondering spirits that met suddenly with a death based on wars, natural catastrophes, etc., and need to be appeased, they are not treated individually but collectively in ritual. Above all, an embryo or a fetus was not regarded as a 'human being' in traditional Korean society and consequently, people disposed of its corpse carelessly. Likewise, a child who died early didn't deserve memorial service either, because they didn't have the chance to be accepted as a community member in terms of rite of passage. Under this circumstance, the new Buddhist ritual in South Korea, which is designed and performed solely for the sake of the spirits of aborted babies, deserves to be investigated. Nevertheless, this phenomenon barely drew attention from Korean scholars, not to mention its empirical survey and following a socio-cultural analysis. Especially, under the circumstance that this ritual is not only visited by women for the greatest part but also it deals with 'abortion' which is inseparable from female reproduction and sexuality, this phenomenon deserves to be investigated from a feminist point of view.
Accordingly, this research project focused on the socio-cultural implications of this new phenomenon together with the question what this ritual means for the female participants in practice. The research result consists of 4 part in large: firstly, the historical development of this ritual was delineated, and common denominators and differences are identified between Korean Buddhist ritual for the aborted fetus and traditional Buddhist death ritual (Ch'ondoje) as well as Japanese Mizuko Kuyo the Japanese ritual for the unborn dead. Secondly, the socio-cultural background of the appearance and spread of the Buddhist ritual for aborted fetus in South Korea was analysed, presenting neo-liberal economic system or the uncertainty Koreans feel under this system as a major reason. Thirdly, precedent study on the relation between Japanese ritual for aborted fetus, Mizuko Kuyo and Japanese women was critically reviewed. And lastly, the results of questionnaire surveys were presented which were conducted by this author at two Korean Buddhist temples, Gudsam-sa and Yongjang-sa.