Korean Buddhism on the International Stage

This paper attempts to situate Korean Buddhism in a global context. A basic concern of the paper is the simple question: what does Korean Buddhism have to offer the global community? Though not coming up with any concrete answers to the above question, the paper concludes that the Korean Buddhist tradition has indeed got much to offer, but has thus far failed both to adequately announce itself on the international stage and to interact on a critical level with the wider Earth community. An example of one of the challenges facing Korean Buddhism is the call to move beyond the nation state community and move towards the global community, as seen in the challenge to move away from the concept of ‘nation protecting Buddhism’ (護國佛敎) and towards the more inclusive concept of ‘Global-community protecting Buddhism ’ (護地球村佛敎). It is also suggested that many of the riches which Korean Buddhism might share with the wider community may be found when Korean Buddhism’s philosophical and spiritual views are studied through the various lenses of history, ecology, colonialism, economics, etc.