현대 한국불교 여성 성직자의현황과 젠더경험

Abstract

Shaven head and strict ascetic practice represent Buddhist bhikkunis. In reality, however, Korean Buddhist nuns of today show remarkable differences depending on which order they belong to. This paper presents the field survey closely looking into the current status of Buddhist nuns in modified contemporary Buddhist culture in Korea. It also discusses their gender experiences through in-depth interviews. The Jogye Order, the major order of traditional Korean Buddhism is ruled out of this study and Buddhist nuns who are members of other three Orders, that is, the Taego Order, the Cheontae Order, and the Jingak Order, are studied here in focus. Despite their playing leading roles in contemporary Korean religion, they have not drawn much of academic attention. First of all, the Taego Order has only been known as the community of married Buddhist monks who have long disputed with bhikkus of the Jogye Order. This explains the little knowledge about whether the Order includes bhikkunis or not. There is very few who are aware of the reality even inside the Buddhist community. The total number of monks was reported to be 6,105 throughout the Taego Order, whereas there were 1,293 nuns in the Order. They take similar entrance courses regardless of their sex. But regulations of this Order clearly stipulate that bhikkunis are treated differently from bhikkus in hierarchical ranking, which causes bhikkunis‘ isolation from central politics as well as religious position. Nevertheless, bhikkunis of the Order, not much controlled by the central administration, freely run their private temple. A bhikkuni of the Taego Order whom I interviewed did not show much interest in the nature of men-centered politics of the Order. But, she expressed indignation over the fact that a monk she guided had to be enrolled under another monk due to the restriction that a bhikkuni can not have a bhikku disciple. This will be analyzed as the nun‘s own gender experience. Meanwhile, she remained silent to the question asking if bhikkunis seemingly unmarried in public get actually married and live with their family. There were cases where some bhikkunis of this Order made their home at the same time engaging in religious activity as a nun. While male priests of this Order can marry unrestrained, bhikkunis are not willing to reveal their real life because of social conventions. Therefore, the fact that she avoided to answer the question will be analyzed as another gender experience. There are 250 bhikkunis in the Cheontae Order which was newly established; there are 150 bhikkus, which speaks of higher percentage of nuns who are, however, not given the right to operate the temple. Most of nuns stay at the Guinsa Temple that is the head temple of the Order. Another distinctive characteristic is that they grow their hair long while celibacy is strictly requested. They do not receive traditional 348 precepts for bhikkunis, instead, they only received ten precepts of Mahayana Buddhism. A bhikkuni from the Cheontae Order I interviewed tried not to complain much about great restrictions on nuns‘ activities, yet she did expect the advent of changes. Another bhikkuni did not want to talk about the structure of the Order, rather she was dissatisfied with rigid hierarchy of bhikkunis. The female clergy of the Jingak Order is not called a bhikkuni but a ‘Jeonsu(傳受)‘. Apart from several exceptions, most of them get married and engage in the religious vocation (173 female and 139 male). Gender equality is performed better in this institution comparing with the other Buddhist Orders or other religions. The clergy women of this Order, nevertheless, let their husband cover the role representing the temple and the Order, while they take the responsibility to strictly observe daily ritual and practice. Meeting lay people and counselling them are added to their heavy religious duties, so they can not have their personal life time or chances to pursue new religious culture. A female clergy of this Order said at the interview that it was hard to be a housewife and clergy woman at the same time, but she was reluctant to discuss conflicts with her husband and partner clergy. This was because they apparently wanted the Order to develop through male clergy‘s expanding the area. In this context, her gendered consciousness is likely to be ‘shelved‘. This could be interpretated to be another style of gender experience.