NEWS

Korea’s Jogye Order to Establish Buddhist Temple in Pakistan

By Craig Lewis | | Buddhistdoor Global

The government of Pakistan has given authorization for the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, South Korea’s largest Buddhist order, to establish a Buddhist temple at one of Pakistan’s ancient Buddhist heritage sites. The decision stems from the recent visit to Pakistan by a monastic delegation from Korea led by Venerable Wonhaeng, head of the Jogye Order. Ven. Wonhaeng, the 36th president of the Jogye Order, elected to a four-year term in October 2018, led a monastic delegation on a visit to Pakistan from 16–24 November. “I was deeply moved when I first stepped into Pakistan because it is the home country of the Ven. Marananta [Malananda, fl. fourth century CE], who brought Buddhism to Korea about 1,600 years ago,” Ven. Wonhaeng said during a Buddhist ceremony in Seoul after returning from Pakistan. “I was touched when I thought of him, who toiled to come all the way to East Asia against all the odds to spread Buddhism.” (The Korea Times) Malananda was a Buddhist monk from Gandhara, an ancient region in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, in what is now northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. He was among the first people to bring Buddhism to the Korean Peninsula, and the first to bring the spiritual tradition to the kingdom of Baekje (18 BCE–660 CE; one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla) in southwestern Korea.



The monastic delegation performs a ceremony at the Lahore Museum before an ancient sculpture of the Buddha. From youtube.com