Seoul, South Korea — She’s not one to count how many hours she spends re-creating Goryeo Buddhist paintings, because for her, it is a way of practicing Zen.
“There were times when I felt my arm became disjointed, my eyes ruptured and my heart stopped,” said Ven. Hyedam in an interview with The Korea Times at an office in southern Seoul.
Since she was a child, Ven. Hyedam has been enraptured by Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392) Buddhist paintings. She will show her work based on the paintings at her special exhibition at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, which will run from Dec. 9 through Dec. 15.
“Every nation has its own cultural heritage, which is a tale of the history, spirit and integrity of its people,” said Ven. Hyedam. “But Goryeo was the first nation to adopt Buddhism as a state religion. The world at that time was turbulent with internal strife and invasions, and Goryeo’s ruling class wished to ask for forgiveness for knowingly harming other people, through Buddhist paintings,” the Buddhist nun monk said.
The Buddhist paintings created during the period are called Goryeo Bulwha. The chief monk of the KyeTae Temple in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, however, refers to them as Goryeo Hwabul, just as a “wooden Buddha” is called a “Mok Bul.”
Her efforts are “small” she said, but a meaningful one that aims to reproduce the Goryeo-era paintings in their original spirit, that is, their spirit at the time when Buddhism was crystallized as art.
– Source : buddhistchannel.tv
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