Thirteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

This paper concerns the representation of Buddhist nuns in the Buddhist nectar ritual paintings. Originating in the Chosŏn kingdom (1392-1910), these paintings depict Buddhist rites that are performed to save sentient beings from the sufferings of samsara by offering sweet nectar to them. Presently, there are about seventy extant paintings. I analyze the nuns’ images in the nectar ritual paintings from a socio-religious point of view. I first explain the definition of this genre and the historical context of its emergence in the sixteenth century. The second part of my paper examines the salient iconographic characteristics of the Buddhist nun figures, focusing on their robes and postures. In the last section of my article, I discuss the social and religious significance of the display of the nun images in the public space during a Buddhist salvation ritual. My paper counters the widely accepted view that the nuns’ lineage had vanished by mid-Chosŏn due to anti-Buddhist measures taken by the pro-Confucian kings. The vibrant iconographic representation of the nuns strongly suggests that they were actively engaged in the lives of the commoners, contrary to the claim that they had become “invisible” in mainstream Chosŏn society. As evidence of my point, I show the surprising portrayals of the nuns as the performers of the ritual, which clearly attest to the historical continuity of their sangha throughout Chosŏn.