Professor David William Kim, a member of the World Heritage Committee of the National Heritage Administration and a Fellow of The Royal Historical Society (UK), was invited to the Oxford Symposium at Oxford University in the UK to present his research on the rarity and sociality of Korean cultural heritage as K-Pop and K-Culture lead the way in 21st century global culture. He presented his research on women's Buddhism, which grew in the 1960s-1980s amidst industrialization and democratization movements, to the global academic community for the first time in this field in terms of gender equality, minority rights, leadership, education, and wellbeing, and engaged in critical discussions with scholars from 26 countries in anthropology, sociology, education, tourism, politics, religion, international relations, and Asian studies on the new dimensions of transnational transmission. The following is a brief introduction to the original European publication, Bhikkhuni Buddhist Culture in Contemporary Korea. 

When Korea was liberated in 1945, the decolonisation movement was one of the leading social movements, along with political concerns over capitalism and socialism. The conflict between celibate and married monks left the Korean fusion of Buddhism in legal and violent chaos. The outbreak of the Korean War (1950-1953) and the ensuing social insecurity further generated strife, antagonism, and schism. Then, how was contemporary Korean Buddhism transformed? The new Buddhist religions were innovatively reinvented in the transitional society of industrialisation (late 1950s-1970s) and democratisation (1980s-2020s).

The Theravada Buddhism of Thailand, Bangladesh, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Tibet was not supportive of the Bhikkhuni movement (Grouard 2020). Meanwhile, the Mahayana Buddhism of East Asia (China, Vietnam, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) maintained Seon (=Zen) practice, in which the Bhikkhunis were recognised. Among them, the geocultural case of the Bomun movement represents the policy of gender equality in Korean Buddhist society. The Bhikkhus (male monks) are not allowed to be part of the official movement in any circumstance, although followers are not limited to any gender people. The female Sangha organisation was established through the personal efforts of Geungtan and Eun-Young. Theological or doctrinal conflicts did not cause the emergence of the movement. Instead, the human rights and justice of female monks over the post-Korean War’s democratisation and industrialisation fostered the religious independence of the first Bhikkhuni movement in the contemporary world.

They survived and were innovatively developed based on the relationship with the royal females. The residence of the last empress of the Joseon Dynasty, Empress Sunjeonghyo (1894–1966) and other senior court ladies in the temple gave them the authority to protest for their social right to make political objections. The Bomun temple (the headquarters of the movement) was understood to function in the historical role of Jungupwon (淨業院) where the husbandless royal ladies committed to becoming lifetime nuns. The prayer behaviour, before the Seokguram Grotto, depicts their attitude toward the nation in the context of patriotism, unification, and the welfare of the people. Although the narrative that their senior Bhikkhuni enshrined three ash items (眞身舍利) of Buddha in the Myobo Pagoda in the 1970s is nonscientific, the mission of the female Buddhist group is creative if one regards their concern for the marginalised members of the society, including children, youth, widows, and other women.
For more details, see: https://www.oxfordsymposiumonreligiousstudies.com/past-meetings/