Cultural post #5

[Jenna Lee]

Buddhism is a religion that is relatively popular in Korea, specifically with the older generation. It was introduced to Korea from China and Japan, and it has been the religion of Korea during the Joseon era. The movie “Along with the Gods” shows the buddhist aspect of the afterlife, which includes the 49 days of trials and judgement for reincarnation. Although it is a little bit different from the movie, there are five deadly sins of Buddhism, which are ignorance, attachment, aversion, pride, and jealousy. After the trials, they are judged to either be reincarnated or stay in hell. Although a little bit different from traditional Buddhism, Korean Buddhism took ideas of the Mahayana Buddhism, and added their own ideas and concepts of the afterlife. I was inspired to research about Korean Buddhism because my grandma is Buddhist, so I wanted to see what kinds of beliefs her religion held. I was also inspired because of the movie that we watched in class, “Along with the Gods”. The main character dies and goes to the underworld, where he is judged on how he lived his life, with trials based on the different types of sins for 49 days, and he must pass all of those trials within the 49 days in order to reincarnate.