Korean people have enjoyed themselves over tea since the era of the Three Countries. The way that the current tea practitioners of Korea exercise Dado is quite different from that of the past tea lovers who promoted virtues and well-being through tea ...
Korean people have enjoyed themselves over tea since the era of the Three Countries. The way that the current tea practitioners of Korea exercise Dado is quite different from that of the past tea lovers who promoted virtues and well-being through tea in daily life. Dado has become the cultural goods for consumers with oriental taste and transformed into an artistic cultural enterprise as shown at the numerous tea events of the big cities. Dado culture, a symbolic essence of frugality, propriety, impartiality, zen, has been going through vital changes today.
This study, with interest in the current changes of temple Dado, is designed to reveal the characteristics of tea culture shown in Wolleongchawhe, a tea club for female buddhists in Wolleong temple, by focusing on the actual aspects of the way tea practitioners interpret Dado and the way they realize the teaching of Dado.
In order to complete this object, this study analyzes the processes that the tea club went through to become a more effective organization suitable for extended tasks by examining the members' motives of joining the tea club and the systems of human work force and education
This study also assesses the way they inherit and interpret Dado philosophy and the way they make use of it for personal well-being. Then this study covers the features of the way they apply Dado to the public sector for community as well as religion. Based on these findings, this study finally tries to analyze the irony that Korean tea culture has put emphasis on the spirituality of Dado yet appeared to be the culture of materialistic ostentation by comparing the differences of the spirituality and the materiality of Dado presented both in the private and in the public places. The findings are summarized as follows.
Wolleongchawhe has lasted for more than 10 years. The motives revealed by the majority are the desires to enjoy high class traditional culture and cultivate fellowship. Because they had perceived Dado as a high class hobby just for a few privileged people possessing "money, time and intellect" about 10 years ago, they joined the tea club to satisfy their yearning and curiosity for Dado.
There was a lot of fluctuation in their attendance due to their unstable relationships and superficial interest in Dado for the first 2~3 years. The stability of the tea club was established by those who remained there as they grew to value Dado in all sincerity. It was enhanced by the harmony cultivated by the board of the club as well as by the financial contribution from the chief monk who laid a foundation of the club building a tearoom. As their common experiences accumulated through various field trips and their private concerns were included in their conversations, they established a close bond and mutual trust among themselves. In that way the tea club could be equipped with the cooperative human resources to carry out various extended tasks.
It was not easy for the club members to acquire the knowledge of Dado. As the club consisted of the members with no expertise at the beginning, they had to invite a tea master to the temple in order to open a Dado class, which lasted only a few months. Next, They had to visit other temples to learn about Buddhist tea rituals. They had to take the classes at the local university and the cultural organizations to obtain tea master certificates and traditional courtesy master certificates. Finally they could build their education system by establishing the principles of tea serving moves of their own, editing their own text books and stabilizing the Wednesday Dado class.
The members of the tea club interpret Dado as oriental philosophy that combines the cultivation of one's own virtue derived from Confucianism, Zen of Buddhism, an immortal of Taoism and esthetic elegance of Pung-rew-do. They have tried to employ their knowledge of Dado for multi-dimensional self-actualization. They prepare for their old age promoting mental, physical, social well-being personally through Dado. Utilizing Dado, they try to spread constructive influences on family and society, develop and pass down traditional cultures, and carry out esthetic and intellectual activities. Further more, they try to reinforce their religious identity and make social contributions to their community through Dado.
When practicing Dado, they make emphasis usually on moral virtues of Dado rather than on esthetics of Dado. When comparing the practice of confucianism with that of buddhism, the cultivation of one's own virtue from confucian teaching is more prevalent than zen from buddhist teaching because of the difficulty in reaching enlightenment in reality.
However, esthetic creation is more stressed when a tea event is presented. As the reputation of the tea club depends highly on a tea event dealing with the general public, they meticulously try to perfect the material beauty as much as possible. In case of stressing "Koreans'", they mention impartiality called 'Joong-Jeong' and esthetic elegance called 'Pung-rew-do'. As mentioned above, the stress of Dado philosophy varies drastically depending on social circumstances.
After forming the idea that they could propagate Buddhism with tea through tea rituals and offerings, they have developed many tea events such as Six-Dharma Offerings called 'Yuk-bop-gong-yang', 'Cho-pa-il' tea serving events, the year end tea rituals as well as 'Ba-roo-gong-yang' of temple-stay.
For the propagation of buddhism through tea, multiple features of the current Dado culture have been utilized. The features such as the individuality of tea meditation, the popularity of tea serving the public, the spirituality and materiality of tea rituals, the long-held tradition by inheriting Cheontae Dado, the modernity of Dado manifest in the international tea events including Korea, China, and Japan are all used to maximize the effect of Buddhist propagation.
The activity of the tea club in their community can be characterized by solidarity with Moonyewon, a women's cultural organization which has long been utilizing tradition. After Moonyewon discovered a local female who devoted her life to Korean independence from Japanese colony, Moonyewon started cherishing her through tea rituals as an ideal figure of the community in 1990. By emphasizing tradition symbolized by tea, this tea ritual has been used not only to intensify the authority of the local government participating in the ritual but also to build up the ideal identity of the local people as the event has been actively covered by the local media. Through the solidarity with Moonyewon the tea club has secured both the knowledge of traditional culture without a break and the opportunity to serve the public in the community. By attending the memorial rituals of the local celebrities, they have also enhanced the reputation of the tea club through the media.
The dimensions of spirituality and materiality stressed in their Dado culture vary depending on social circumstances. They put more emphasis on spirituality than on materiality overall. In class they put a lot of stress on the spirituality of tea, the cultivation of one's own virtue, as a maxim of Dado. The spirituality of tea is also reinforced by religion through the Buddhist services, lectures, prayers at the monthly mass as well as at the biannual Dado camps of Cheontae temples nation wide. On the other hand, the materiality through their regular Dado class is expressed as "simple beauty in daily life", which is rather distant from materialistic ostentation or splendidness.
However, the materiality as well as the spirituality of Dado are highly accentuated while serving the public at the sites of propagating Buddhism or at the public tea rituals for the community. For the tea propagation of Buddhism, their personal Buddhist ideas such as the Nature of Buddha, enlightenment, charitable deeds, blessings and offerings are added to the spirituality of tea, which reinforces their religious identity as buddhists. As a tool for artistic expressions which convey the spirituality visually, the materiality of Dado functions more like an eye-catcher, drawing the attention from spirits and deities of the heaven and that from the media and the public of the earth.
The spirituality of the pubic tea rituals in their community also intensifies representing humanity, justice, propriety, wisdom and sincerity, loyalty and especially filial piety not to mention the cultivation of one's own virtue. The materiality of the public tea rituals in the community makes the solemn, pious, courteous Confucian Rituals visually grandiose. Thus the spirituality of the rituals is accentuated through material visibility and exaggeration. Such public applications of Dado, either for religion or for community, can account for the irony of current Korean tea culture that displays material ostentation in spite of the fact that it emphasizes the spirituality.