Tenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Food is an intimate, material, secular commodity that holds deep connections to the body, society and nature. It is also a vehicle for expressing the sacred and a pathway to “enlightenment.” This paper looks at the reinvention of Korean Buddhist “temple food” in contemporary South Korea as part of the slow, alternative food movement. In particular, it considers the impact of gender dynamics and the transnational flow of people, materials and practices on the food landscape and religion in the context of the competing mandates of the various agents involved. As a way to illustrate this dynamic, the paper introduces some of the leading “master chefs of temple food,” a formal designation awarded by the Jogye order to Buddhist nuns or monks who have made exceptional contributions to the development of temple food. It also examines the role of the global creative industries, which can turn a reclusive nun at a remote mountain temple in Korea into a global sensation. The paper concludes with a consideration of the dynamic interplay between the sacred and the secular and between the local and the global as forces that shape people’s food ethics and practices.