https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1934-6971
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ABSTRACT
This article examines the recent popularization of Buddhist temple food in contemporary South Korea. It specifically probes the circumstances that have led to nuns taking on the leadership role in excavating, preserving, reinterpreting and popularizing temple food. Nuns have proactively responded to a myriad of contemporary challenges, such as food insecurity, public health, the loss of shared community and the ecological crisis, and seized the new opportunities to open up a noble space of their own by investing new value into temple food as a means to achieve enlightenment and an ethical life. The article introduces some of the leading “master chefs of temple food,” a formal designation awarded to Buddhist nuns and monks who have made exceptional contributions to the development of temple food. It also illustrates how the popularization of temple food has intersected significantly with the general promotion of Korean cuisine (hansik) as authentic cultural heritage in the age of globalization, which has tended to result in the growing commercialization of temple food.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. The sole male recipient of the Master Chef of Temple Food designation is Jeokmun (2019).
2. The training program offers a set of classes (elementary-level to advanced-level). Those who complete the curriculum are eligible to take examinations – written tests plus actual cooking demonstrations. When they pass the examinations, they are given a certificate as expertise of temple food. https://spec.koreatemplefood.com/templecook/about/index.html
3. In this connection, it is useful to bear in mind that the commercial culinary world has been dominated by male chefs, not only in Korea but globally (Eater, May 30, 2018; Huffington Post, March 11, 2021). Indeed in Korea, the majority of secular “master chefs” (yori myeongjang) are men. Men dominate the high-end restaurant business as well as training programs for the next generation of culinary professionals. Prominent chefs featured in the popular media further illustrate that the culinary world is a man’s world. To be sure, one major difference between secular master chefs and temple food master chefs is that the former is in the monetary capitalist enterprise, while the latter is not. This contrast mirrors the long history of gendered labor in which men’s work in the public has been monetized and women’s work in the domestic has never been translated into financial rewards.
4. Bon’gak, the President of the Association of Korean Nuns (2019-), recalls her earlier wish to be born as a monk in the next life for the simple reason that she wanted to stay and practice Buddhism in Haeinsa, a major Buddhist temple that does not allow nuns. Kyunghyang sinmun, November 25, 2019; Hankyoreh, September 13, 2016.
5. At present, for each nun on the board there are seven monks. http://monthly.chosun.com/client/news/viw.asp?ctcd=&nNewsNumb=201311100048
6. There is a sign of change. A monk (Uil), who used to be a professional chef for many years, completed a course work/training for future experts of temple food. He was the only male participant in that course. He hopes to learn temple food more systematically and contribute to the popularization and globalization of temple food as an outstanding healthy, vegetarian food. https://www.etoday.co.kr/news/news_print?idxno=1740884. Huffington Postyori myeongjang
7. It should be noted that not all Buddhist diets are vegetarian. The early history of Buddhism and regional Buddhist traditions (e.g., Tibet and Southeast Asia) show that both vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets have existed in Buddhist practice (I Citation2013).
8. One of the renowned nun chefs, Beopsong, further notes that in Buddhism, the normally prohibited foods, such as meat and osinchae, could be consumed as exception in the case of illness. https://www.chosun.com/culture-life/food-taste/2021/06/30/DXAXGC6IOFD7JFRKJYOXZE4GSI/
9. The Buddhist nun, Wookwan published her cookbook, Wookwan’s Korean Temple Food: The Road to the Taste of Enlightenment (2018), the first Korean temple food cookbook published in English. She describes her motivation for writing the cookbook as follows: “I have had many opportunities since 2010 to introduce Korean temple food in the US or other countries … When I was in New York in 2010, I visited the Culinary Institute of America and noticed there weren’t any Korean cookbooks in the library. That’s when I thought it would be nice to write an introduction to temple food if I had the opportunity.” https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/buddhist-nun-publishes-english-cookbook-on-korean-temple-food
10. Seonjae seunim, “Dangsineun mueoseul meokgo sasimnikka?”
12. As a Netflix show, it had global reach and high production values. Netflix had 195.15 million paid subscribers worldwide as of the third quarter of 2020.
13. His “discovery” reflects a broader trend in which Euro-American male chefs introduce ethnic, exotic, “unknown” foods from all over the world through their popular cooking shows, such as Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” (2013–2018). A critical question to ask is to whom it is “unknown.” Obviously, exotic foods in other countries are “unknown” to average Americans. Yet, those foods have been there for centuries.
14. Given the woman-centered genealogy of the most essential foods, it is not surprising to find the most skilled cooks in making staple ingredients – fermented foods, sources and pastes – to be women. One of the “sikpum myeong’in” (masters of food) is Mun Ongnye who was awarded in 2010 for her red-chili paste that she has inherited for six generations.
15. Shapiro (Citation2015).
16. Buddhism used to the most popular religion in Korean. However, in recent decades Buddhism has shrunk and now ranks second. According to Statistics Korea, in 2015 the number of South Koreans identifying as Protestant Christians was 9,675,761 (19.7% of the population), making Protestantism the most popular religion in the country. Buddhism ranked second, with 7,619,332 (15.5%). Data from kostat.go.kr/. See also (Moon Citation2008; Kaplan Citation2010; Kim Citation2017).
17. Bulgyo sinmun (April 3, 2018).
20. Another interesting example is found in two nun chefs in Yunpilam, a temple well-known as a site for intensive training and meditation for nuns. The senior nun, Gonggok, advocates rigorous preservation of traditional temple food, while a junior nun, Jeonghyo, finds fusionization of temple food to be an effective way to deliver Buddhism to the wider population. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Bcl5kHnn0
21. One can experience the traditional baru gongyang by joining a program called “temple stay.” At present, twenty-six temples offer temple stay programs, organized and run by the Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism (Han’guk bulgyo munhwa saeopdan), founded in 2004 by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.
22. The main chef at Baru Gongyang is not a Buddhist priest but secular chef who has extensive training in traditional, upper-class Korean cuisine as well as western-style cooking.
23. “Sachal eumsik ui jeongcheseong” (Identity of Temple Food), Hyeondae bulgyo, November 11, 2016.