근대 전라도 불교의 동향과 종단설립 운동

Abstract

This article examined the educational and missionary activities and various statistical data about major head temples(Bonsans, 本山) in the Jeolla province during the modern era, and studied how they influenced the construction of the Buddhist Order(宗團). During the colonial period, Buddhist temples were organized into 31 Bonsans under the Japanese temple ordinance(寺刹令). Among them were five bonsans in Jeonnam and two in Jeonbuk of the Jeolla province. The main project of the Joseon Buddhist Foundation(JBF, 財團法人 朝鮮佛敎中央敎務院), established in the 1920s, was to maintain financial support from local temples. The support ratio of seven bonsans in the Jeolla province was 16.3 percent of the total. This ratio was lower than that of the Bonsans in the Gyeongsang province, but it was the second-highest in financial support for the JBF, and that was exactly what showed in the status of the Jeolla province Buddhism. In addition, the data from Jeolla province Buddhism, such as statistical figures of temples, monks, and mission offices, were about 20% of the total Buddhist community. In the late 1930s, the Jeonnam Buddhism Association(JBA, 全南5本山聯合會) was formed, which energized the educational and missionary activities in the province. In particular, the JBA established a plan for the construction of the Buddhist Order in cooperation with Gyeongsang province Bonsans. And their plan eventually led to the establishment of the Jogye Order(曹 溪宗) in 1941. The Jeolla province Buddhism has an important meaning in modern Buddhist history in that it contributed greatly to the Imjejong Movement(臨濟宗運動) in the early 1910s and the construction of the Buddhist Order in the 1930s.