The Study of Korean Buddhism in North America : Retrospective and Recent Trends

The field of Korean Buddhism in North America has developed greatly since the 1970s, although it is still a fledgling discipline. During the late 1960s and 1970s most studies of Korean Buddhism were confined to assessing literature and materials. From the late 1970s through the 1990s studies of eminent monks, such as Wonhyo and Jinul, dominated the field. Over the last twentyfive years, however, three approaches to the study of Korean Buddhism have emerged: The evaluation of Korean Buddhism in its East Asian context, the examination of Korean Buddhist practice and ritual, and the observation of Korean Buddhism from the standpoint of modernity. Lew Lancaster set the tone for the field through various projects making Korean and Japanese scholarship on Korean Buddhism more accessible to Western audiences. Robert Buswell demonstrated the importance of the Korean contribution to the shared East Asian Buddhist tradition in his writings associated with the Seon/Zen tradition. While much impressive work has been and is being done, the field still lacks basic materials for instruction in the classroom, such as a general historical overview and anthologies of sources.