Neither Mountain Nor Marketplace
Placing the Buddhist Nun inContemporary Korean Literature
Hyangsoon Yi
Universityof Georgia

Despite its distinct presence in Korean society for nearly one anda half millennia, the world of Buddhist nuns has remained closed to the"gaze" of outsiders. Even the hagiographies on renowned nuns areavailable to the public only in snippets and mostly as legends. The
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dearth of serious treatments of Buddhist nuns in Korean literature thus
reflects and at the same time perpetuates the sense of mystery withwhich the life of a female renunciant is veiled in popular perception.
In modern poetry, there is a tendency to lyricize the mystique of thenun, as is illustrated by two well-known poems from the 1930s: Paek
Sok's "Yosung" (The Nun); and Cho Chi-hun's "Sungmu" (The Nun's
Dance). From the late 1980s, however, the female monastic community
has come under increasing scrutiny by a handful of writers andfilmmakers, most notably represented by Han Sung-won, Nam Chisim, and Im Kwon-taek.
This paper investigates the portrayals of Buddhist nuns in two
novels published in the late 1980s: Han's Aje Aje Para Aje (Come,
Come, Come Upward) and Nam's Ltow6ara(Udumbara). Unlike thepassing vignettes on the nun provided by poems and short stories,
Han's and Nam's multi-volume novels employ a quasi-epic mode toprobe the processes and implications of women's enlightenment, frombroad socio-historical contexts. Of particular interest among thecommon narrative strategies adopted in these two works is the use ofa pair of nuns, foils to each other, who take widely divergent paths tospiritual attainment. Through these characters, the novelists explore thecomplex and intrinsic relationship between wisdom and compassion,a foundation of Mahayana doctrine. In both novels, wisdom andcompassion are topographically figured in the mountain and the3International Journal of Korean Studies • Spring/Summer 2002151

marketplace, respectively. As the loci of differing types of spiritual
pursuit undertaken by Buddhist women, these spatial tropes are crucial
in unraveling thematic trajectories in both narratives. Given themultivalent narrative functions of spatial metaphors, this paper traces
the patterns of the nun's itinerancy in the two texts, paying special
attention to the problematics of sexuality and motherhood, which areclearly mapped in the progress toward the goal of bodhisattvahood.
The Buddhist monastery, as portrayed in Aje Aje Para Aje andUdambara, can best be described in terms of what Michel Foucault
calls "heterotopia." According to Foucault, heterotopias are "countersites, a kind of effectively enacted Utopia in which the real sites, all theother real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously
represented, contested, and inverted" (p. 24). They are special forms of
utopia existent in any society. But unlike a Utopia, which by definition
has no physical manifestation, a heterotopia exists as a material
location. Paradoxically, it can be "isolated" and is also "penetrable" (p.
26). Some heterotopias are, however, not freely accessible, demanding
a special ritual for entry. The function of a heterotopia can change
according to socio-historical circumstances, but in general it constructs
a space of either "illusion" or "compensation" (p. 27). The former
reveals the real world as illusory by contrast, and the latter makes thereal world appear to be chaotic. Foucault presents brothels and colonies
as two representative types of heterotopic spaces.
As heterotopic spaces, the Buddhist nunneries in Aje Aje Para Aje
and Udambara embody elements of both compensation and illusion.
Initially, the heroines perceive the nunneries as ideal sanctuaries for
women in existential pain. As the narratives develop, however, themonastic communities turn out to be just as—if not more—intolerant,
authoritarian, and hypocritical as secular organizations. In Han's andNam's texts, this shift in the perception of the nunnery is dramaticallyinscribed in Sunnyo's and Chihyo's relationships to their respective
temples. Both nuns share a traumatic past of malfunctioning families
and failed romances which have led them to "go into the mountain." In
the end, however, they are expelled from their supposed mountain"sanctuaries" because they become involved with men and thus violatemonastic rules. The harsh disciplinary actions imposed upon them
expose the inflexibility of the monastery as a religious institution.
Chinsong, Sunnyo's antithesis in Aje Aje Para Aje, represents a
different case. She had caring parents and a bright future as a highschool senior. Despite her comfortable life, she chooses to become anun. Her determination to leave home against the vehement opposition
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of her family is based on her cherished memories of the nuns' temple
she had visited with her grandmother. Chinsong's decisive severanceof her worldly ties and her determination to pursue her chosen path are
sharply contrasted with Sunnyo's constant ruminations about her pastand her ultimate failure to adapt to the monastic environment.
However, even Chins6ng--who closely follows the prescribed path fora novice—eventually encounters the inscrutable inner dynamics ofmonastic life upon discovering that Sunnyo, a total misfit in her eyes,
is in fact favored over her by the abbess Unson in transmission of thelineage. The enigma of her role model, Unson's sympathetic attitude
toward the wayward nun, Sunnyo causes Chinsong to experience anger,
jealousy, and disillusionment, and ultimately to take to the road insearch of different types of teachers in the marketplace.
As Sunnyo and Chinsong for different reasons return to the secularworld, so do Chihyo and Hyeil in Udambara. A slight variation in thelatter dyad is that while Chihyo struggles with her liminal status insociety as an excommunicated nun, her foil, Hyeil, is displaced to India
where she furthers her sutra study at a graduate school. Although
Chihyo is more diligent in practice and also more observant ofmonastic discipline than Hyeil, it is Chihyo who is ultimately deprivedof her monastic status and is forced to leave the nunnery. This may
appear to contradict Han's novel in which outspoken and flexibleminded Sunnyo is expelled from the monastery. A close comparisonof the two situations, however, shows that both nuns in fact sharespiritual earnestness as is hinted by their uncalculating fervent
involvement in romance.
In both novels, the nuns' sojourns in the Rabelaisian marketplace
are depicted as a necessary step toward achieving a mind ofcompassion. In other words, itinerancy constitutes a vital step toward
a bodhisattva ideal. Throughout his novel, Han emphasizes that
religious liberation is incomplete without an understanding of
humanity as flesh and blood; enlightenment can be meaningful only
when it is attained through suffering. Therefore, the relocations of thenuns to the samsaric vortex are fully justified as an indispensable phasein their transformative processes. According to this thematic scheme,
Buddhist itinerancy—called manhaeng (ten thousand actions) or
unsuhaenggak (wandering like a cloud or water) in Korean—serves asa narrative device for synthesizing wisdom and compassion as
bodhisattvahood. As is shown by Chinsong's nomadic quest for thetruth, Han's literary appropriation of itinerancy purports to Sudhana's
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Scripture).
Despite their noble rationales, however, Han's and Nam's spatialreconfigurations of their heroines harbor a rather disturbing narrative
mechanism. What triggers the nuns' departures from the world of
spiritual contemplation for that of bodily experience is the voyeuristic
male gaze constantly hovering around the temple compounds.
Embodied by Hyonu and Chongnam in Aje Aje Para Aje and by
Tonghwa and Pongdu in Udambara, the gaze penetrates into thesacred, forbidden space, forcing the nuns out of their sequestered
mountain enclosures into the open arena of the marketplace. The
menacing force of their gaze is signified by the mental and physicalmonstrosities branded on them. Hyonu is a serial rapist and thief.
Chongnam, born of a monk and a laywoman, behaves eccentrically outof his self-consciousness about his father's unorthodox religious status.
Tonghwa has a blind masseuse sister, who is violated by the husbandof his spiritual mentor and sculptor-professor Ch'aeryon. An orphan
who grew up in the temple, Pongdu is grotesquely deformed due tochildhood injuries sustained during a fire. For these men, the young
nuns are objects of desire, and both the authors and readers of thenovels conjointly participate in the characters' obsessive gaze. The
nuns are allowed textual spaces only so far as they fulfill the collective
voyeuristic fantasy. This point is acutely borne out by Hyeil, the only
nun among the four who is clean of amorous scandals. Her years ofoverseas stay are only summarily and perfunctorily reported. During
this period abroad, she literally disappears from the story, creating a
textual void.
Displaced in the modern cityscape, the nuns are reduced todomestic primitives, simultaneously uncontaminated by and vulnerable
to civilization. They are simply colonial subjects at home. While their
exotic attraction is on public exhibition due to their shaved heads, thenuns are pressured to exchange their innocence for experiential
knowledge of humanity. This motif plays an important part in reading
the novels as Bildungsromans. While both authors urge their heroines
to confront rather than avoid a world rife with sin and suffering andalso to accept rather than denounce humanity in all its guises, the two
writers significantly differ in narrativizing these thematic concerns aspart of the protagonists' spiritual growths.
The central subject Han tackles m Aje Aje Para Aje is the myth of"mountain Buddhism," whose allure, he argues, stems from distancing
itself from the real-life problems of the masses. Han's criticism of
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monks in the novel, but especially by Chongnam, who ardently defends
his father. As a married monk, Chongnam's father is despised bysociety, but as a master painter of tonka, he has made incalculable
contributions to maintaining the tradition of Buddhist art. In Han'snovel, the motif of celibacy is symbolic of a self-centered Hinayana
inclination to a reclusive and ascetic mountain Buddhism, whichaspires in principle to the Mahayana ideal of reaching out to people inpain.
Han's critical stance towards the conventional Korean form ofcelibate monasticism explains the overwhelming dominance of the
motif of sexual union in his text. It is placed in the foreground as aprime manifestation of the "blood-red life force in which light anddarkness co-exist." For example, Han makes Unson fully "human"
and thus more respectable as a nun by interjecting her fantastic historyof political activism and sexual indulgence into the plot. Unson's
drastic metamorphosis from a worldly woman to a world-renunciant isvividly reenacted through Chinsong and Sunnyo, "the saint and theprostitute" (Vol. 2, p. 378). Sunnyo yields herself to numerous men
from all walks of life, including a criminal, an ambulance driver, afactory worker, a dog-meat farmer, medical doctors, a painter, aProtestant minister, and so on. No less diverse is the gallery ofhumanity to which Chinsong is exposed on her journey. These range
from a runaway monk, Sunchol, who happens to be Sunnyo's brother,and the bizarre Zen monk who has cut off his testicles as a way ofovercoming his erotic desire, to a variety of individuals including a
potter, an altruistic policeman, an ex-sailor, and gangsters. Within thisdizzying microcosm of samsara, Han draws particular attention to adog meat farm as the nethermost point of human depravity. It is at thisplace of "dog-like men and man-like dogs" that Sunnyo's andChinsong's otherwise differing routes intersect one another (Vol. 2, p.
99).
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Be it allegorical or realistic, the problem with Han'scharacterization and, indeed, his text as a whole stems from his
excessive resorting to erotic sensationalism. It seems that the brutal andeven gratuitous rapes of the two nun figures do not suffice; theheroines frequently fantasize about violent sexual attacks. Also, while
Chinsong is repeatedly confronted with the teachings about Tantric
ritual sex by profligate monks, Sunnyo, the consuming temptress, turns
into a vampire, causing deaths to the men who come into close contact
with her. This tendency, combined with Han's formulaic use ofbinarism and exploitation of shoddy melodramatic machinery, such as

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implausible coincidence and extravagant language, mars the integrityof his text and calls into question the sincerity of his criticism of thereligious establishment. Moreover, the novel's thematic structure fails
to articulate clearly the relevance of the two women's dehumanization
process to their spiritual advancement. Sunnyo dies, longing for aromantic reunion with her high school teacher, Hyonchong, in her next
life, and Chinsong, at the end of her tumultuous journey, faces personalgrief at the news of her brother's death and her sister's contraction of
AIDS and ultimate suicide.
Han's treatment of motherhood similarly echoes a Mahayana
Buddhist view of maternity as samsaric bond and dependency par
excellence. Diana Paul states that in Buddhism, and especially in early
Indian Mahayana tradition, "[m] others represented . . . sufferers andperpetual givers of life in pain, almost as if it were a natural law for
women to suffer." Citing the image of a "sucking calf to his mother"in the Dhammapada, Elizabeth Harris also maintains that Buddhism
does not glorify motherhood and that maternal love is a form of
bondage and thus a "barrier to spiritual attainment." Maternity does
not belong to the sacred but to the secular realm. The complex
perception of motherhood in Buddhism can be glimpsed in thepuritanical nun, Chinsong's, negative attitude toward her potential formaternity. She constantly prays for a magical elimination of
menstruation, which she detests as an unwanted reminder of her female
inferiority, and more importantly, as an obstacle to her practice. Her
prudish attitude toward all female biological features is squarely
challenged by Sunnyo's embrace of them as healthy signs of humanity.
Unfortunately, Sunnyo's celebration of her femininity only causes
another set of melodramatic catastrophes. Hyonu, without telling her,deserts their baby boy in Unson's temple, and Sunnyo's two
stepchildren are blind and deaf. Her suffering as a mother implies thekarmic consequences of her sexual dissipation. Her mentally retarded
biological son, in particular, symbolizes the evil outcome of theunnatural union between the sacred (Sunnyo as an ex-nun) and the
profane (Hyonu as an ex-convict). The boy is entrusted to a childless,devoted Buddhist couple by Unson, but he is eventually sent to a
welfare facility after his adoptive parents' sudden deaths. Sunnyo's
stepchildren are also associated with the lasciviousness of their
biological mother, who abandoned her family and eloped with herparamour.
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Ironically, these suffering children occasion Sunnyo to display
fully her compassionate nature. In order to raise funds for building a

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school for handicapped children, she literally sacrifices her body by
prostituting herself with rich donors until she dies of uterine cancer.
This ending is anticipated by Han's frequent allusions to Poryonhyang,a legendary nun who is said to have perished by the "fire on her lotus
flower."Reminiscent of this legendary nun, Sunnyo is fatallycondemned by her uncontainable passion; yet her utmost maternal
devotion is undeniably a quintessential act of bodhisattvahood. Han's
ambivalence toward the relationship between women's spiritualenlightenment, and their sexuality and motherhood, fails to find an
adequate denouement for the text. The thematic tension which resultsfrom such ambiguity only escalates into an absolute spatial dichotomy
at the end of the novel between the mountain to which Chinsong
returns and the marketplace where Sunnyo dies. Han's denial of ameaningful resolution of their fierce competition seriously undermines
the theme of the Middle Way, which he highlights at the outset of thenovel by quoting Sakyamuni Buddha: "If the strings of a zither are tootight, they will break. If they are too loose, they will not create
beautiful sounds. Our life should aim at a balance between the two
extremes" (Vol. l , p . 9).
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Contrasted with the unrelenting rivalry between Sunnyo andChinsong, the mutual assistance and complementary relationshipbetween Chihyo and Hyeil in Udambara are close to the spirit of toban(road companion), the Buddhist monastic fellowship. Nam's
distinction between the two nuns does not hinge so much on the issueof sexuality, as on practice and study. As mentioned above, Hyeil is ascholar nun whose academic career is hampered by ill health. Unlike
the humorous and outgoing type of nun Hyeil, Chihyo is an introvert
concentrating on mediation, which she persistently continues even after
her expulsion from the order. In juxtaposing Chihyo's meditative
training and Hyeil's intellectual pursuit, Nam's emphasis is without
doubt on the former. However, Nam's focus is not on Chihyo's
realization of buddhahood but on her conversion of her awakening intomeaningful social service. Nam elucidates this thematic preoccupation
through Chihyo's forced movement from the mountain to themarketplace.
In delineating Chihyo's complicated passage from a rebellious
journalism major to a Zen monastic and then to a revered bodhisattva,
Nam skillfully exploits the popular motif of the tragic romance of nuns.
Chihyo's transition from the city to the mountain is prompted by her
mental collapse following an unexpected separation from her fiance,
Tonghwa. In this respect, Nam can be said to capitalize on theInternational Journal of Korean Studies • Spring/Summer 2002157

sentimental views of a Buddhist nunnery as an escapist shelter and ofnuns as the victims of unfulfilled affairs. However, what should be
noted in Nam's treatment of this hackneyed motif is that she presents
youthful passion more as a stage one has to undergo in order to reacha higher state of spirituality, not as a mere quagmire where one remains
trapped. In this sense, Chihyo's spiritual itinerary seems to aspire to
Wonhyo's idea of muae (non-obstruction). Han* s Aje Aje Para Aje also
introduces the idea of muae as the goal of Sunnyo's wandering.
However, Han's heroine realizes her failure at both the mountain andthe marketplace as she is faced with her impending death; she is notliberated from her burning desire for Hyonchong or from her lingering
yearning for monastic life. By contrast, Chihyo in Udambara
successfully overcomes the emotional residue from the past andresolutely dedicates herself to practice under the Zen Master Paekchok.
Her newly-acquired equanimity results from the "courage to stain [her]body . . . for transformation." As it turns out, her worldly struggle
with Tonghwa functioned as an expedient for enhancing her
understanding of the complexities of humanity. Consequently, shereadily embraces her religious duties when Paekchok reinstates her into
the nun's status.
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In its philosophical thrust, Nam's approach to women's sexuality
and motherhood is indebted to the Buddhist idea of non-dualistic
interconnectedness. This point can be effectively illuminated byPongdu's combination of physical repulsiveness and spiritual charm.
On the one hand, his adult male body signifies a threat to the nuns'
abstinence. On the other hand, his inculpable childlike innocence
intimates buddha nature, capable of communion with all sentient
beings, as is seen in his early morning exercises on the mountaintop.
This duality is aesthetically dissolved through the wooden Buddha
statues he carves, which are believed to possess magical power.
"Nether sacred nor secular and neither a man nor an animal," Pongdu
represents a pure state of the elemental life force, before it is subject tothe socialization process (Vol. 2, p. 39).
Due to this non-dual state, Pongdu's secret gaze on Chihyo takes
on a deeper resonance than a mere voyeuristic curiosity would. She has
unwittingly nurtured his talent for religious art, and he has in turn
become the mirror of her inner anguish. Their spiritualinterconnectedness finds exquisite expression through a special statuecommissioned by Lady Lee, the patroness of the temple. Pongdu's
strange inability to start the project is correlated with Chihyo's
confusion and sorrow, which are caused by Tonghwa's reappearance

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in her life as a physics professor after years in the U. S. The spiritualbond between Chihyo and Pongdu manifests itself in the episode inwhich he loses an arm to a snake while digging up wild ginseng for
Chihyo who becomes critically ill after Tonghwa's visit. In one of themost dramatic moments subsequent to this incident, Chihyo, wellaware of Pongdu's mental paralysis, makes a nocturnal visit to his
room and lets him touch her body and feel its shape. In thisextraordinary scene, Nam's language so subtly blurs the borders
between realism and fantasy that the reader cannot determine whether
the nun-muse really takes off her clothes or whether the entire action
takes place in the onlooker's imagination:
Chihyo is standing naked in the room bright with the moonlight.
The woodcutter rubbed his eyes with his palms and watched her. She
was apparently in a nun's robe, but for mysterious reasons, she
appeared to be a naked body. Rubbing his eyes again, he cast his eyes
onto her. But it was same; she looked like a naked body. (Vol. 2, p.
251)
Chihyo's unexpected visit reinvigorates Pongdu's creative force,
helping him complete the statue. However, this bizarre incident,
witnessed by the old woodcutter from the village, leads to theirremoval from the temple.
As is the case with Han, Nam presents maternal love as theprimary example of compassion. However, she does not link it directly
to women's sexuality, as Han does. Rather, motherhood is depicted asa part of the intricate cosmic interdependence. For instance, the baby
boy Chihyo looks after for a poor working mother reveals various signsof Pongdu's karmic reincarnation. The baby likes carving as Pongdu
did. In Chihyo's mental screen, the baby's beautiful eyes overlap with
Pongdu's disfigured ones. When the baby innocently calls Chihyo"Mom," she reminisces about the same message Pongdu evokedthrough his desperate body language. Chihyo's position as Pongdu's
surrogate mother figure is further suggested by the resemblance
villagers find among the faces of her, Pongdu, and the Buddha statue
he crafted for Lady Lee. In this regard, it is noteworthy that Nam's idea
of maternity as non-gendered and non-discriminate universal love isplayed out linguistically in the text. As a creator of Buddha images,
Pongdu is called pulmo, a "mother of Buddha." Nam further likens
Pongdu's "maternal" status to the androgynous Kwanum{Avalokiteshvara). A parallel Chihyo discerns between the KoreanInternational Journal of Korean Studies • Spring/Summer 2002

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word "omma" (mom) and "om," the primordial cosmic sound, also
reinforces the broad, encompassing meanings Nam assigns to thenotion of motherhood in this novel (Vol. 4, p. 148).
Similarly to her treatment of motherhood, Nam resolves thethematic tension between the mountain and the marketplace differently
from the way Han handles it. After her descent from the mountain,
Chihyo undergoes education in the marketplace, as Sunnyo andChinsong do in Aje Aje Para Aje. While wandering to find Pongdu, she
encounters the sick and poor living on the margins of society. At theend of this long spiritual wandering, Chihyo, now urged by her teacher
Paekchok, "returns" to society and opens a temple as an urban mission.
Her spiritual progress during this period may not be officiallyacknowledged by the Buddhist establishment but is fully recognized by
Paekchok. Converted from the large house which Ch'aery on used as
her art studio until her death, Chihyo's new temple, located in the cityand yet full of trees and flowers, topographically embodies the ideals
of both the mountain and the marketplace, bridging their gap as theirmiddle ground. This temple later becomes the home to Pongdu's
Buddha statue modeled on Chihyo whose "mysterious" power becomes
accessible to whoever seeks serenity amidst urban frenzy.
This urban temple serves Chihyo as a testing ground for her
qualifications as an ideal mother and thus for her advancement towardbodhisattvahood. This theme is conveyed through a daytime nursery
she runs in the temple for slum-area children. By involving herself withthese children, she earns the status of mother without being sexually"defiled." As Paul points out, buddhas and bodhisattvas are often born"parthenogenetically, that is, without the sexual intercourse of theparents." Chihyo's image as a compassionate mother of all children
is further confirmed when she is entrusted with the religious educationof Yung, the boy born of the passionate affair between Paekchok andCh'aeryon. As Lady Lee's adopted grandson, Yung is exceptionallygifted in both the arts and sciences. Endowed with spirituality andintelligence, which he inherits from his parents, Yung is envisioned by
Nam as a buddha figure who will solve various problems of humanity
in the coming world. As Yung studies physics with Tonghwa at theuniversity, Chihyo's long struggle with her unrealized love finallycomes to an ironic and yet peaceful closure through their pseudoparenting of the future Buddha.
In Aje Aje Para Aje and Udambara, Han and Nam pay homage to
Buddhist nuns who strive for spiritual attainment. In doing so, theyalso criticize mainstream monastic education, in which the goal of
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compassion is often eclipsed by that of wisdom. In a sense, the two
writers attempt to redress the imbalance between them, or more
broadly, the misconception of Buddhist enlightenment per se. This
argument is corroborated by their common emphasis on the theme of
hoehyang, "[t]he 'turning over' of merit acquired by good deeds of anindividual to the benefit of another being, or of all beings." As a wayof fictionalizing this theme, Han centers his text on women's sexuality,
whereas Nam concentrates on motherhood.
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The above difference is expressed spatially in the two novels. Both
Han and Nam take their heroines away from the monastic setting. In
the end, however, Han's novel closes on a skeptical note, questioning
the possibility of a bridge between the mountain and marketplace,whereas Nam's offers urban Buddhism as a viable form of integration
between the two symbolic places. Nam's vision does not advocate theabolition of the celibate monastic tradition. However, she clearlyaddresses the need for innovations in the tradition so that contemporarymonastics can fulfill bodhisattvahood in changing society without
forsaking the time-honored ideal of celibate communalism set forth by
Sakyamuni.
What reverberates in Han's idea of reform, which is imparted
through the mouths of Chongnam and his radical monk friends, is theethos of minjung pulgyo (popular Buddhism) of the 1980s. Han's
populist espousal of socially-engaged Buddhism cannot be easily
reconciled with the seclusionism of ancient monasticism. In
comparison, Nam appears to prefer a gradual alteration of theanachronistic aspects of Buddhist institutions. Their differing stances
are lucidly discernible over the issue of the problematic status of thenun. Both Aje Aje Para Aje and Udambara warrant the possibility ofa woman's spiritual awakening. However, this possibility is strictly
framed within the guidance of monks, not senior nuns; Unson in Aje
Aje Para Aje and Hyejo in Udambara tend to disappoint and frustraterather than inspire and enthuse the young novices. Han's text only
reiterates the limitations of female monastics, but Nam's, while
acknowledging such constraints, nonetheless instills a prospect ofinnovation through Chihyo's loss and reacquisition of her religious
identity. As a disrobed nun, Chihyo studies under Paekchok, together
with male monks, who are shown to bow to her as a form of respectwhen her awakening is recognized by their teacher. These"unorthodox" scenes transpire a new direction for the flawed systemof traditional Buddhism.
From a broad historical perspective, a survey of the images ofInternational Journal of Korean Studies • Spring/Summer 2002161

Buddhist nuns in modern and contemporary Korean literature reveals
two overall patterns, both of which are configured in spatial terms. The
first pattern involves the mapping of the nun's body. Modern literaturenearly exclusively focuses on the nun's shaved head as exemplified by
Paek's and Cho's poems, but contemporary works broaden the gaze toher entire body. While this interest can be understood as a strategy forhumanizing the "divine" image of the nun, it should be put inappropriate critical perspective. Han's and Nam's approaches to thenun's body as an aesthetic object show a range of ideological cracks
latent in the outsider's gaze. Im Kwon-taek's film adaptation ofAje Aje
Para Aje well attests Han's literary sensationalism rendered intocinematic voyeurism.
The second pattern noted in the literary portraits of nuns is that thegeographical settings have shifted from temple courtyards to city
centers. This shift is evinced by a comparison of Han's and Nam's
works, and the aforementioned poems by Paek and Cho. The"outward" movement to urban locales certainly reflects the changing
role of Buddhism in today's Korean society and the increasing activism
among monks and nuns. Hence, the interplay between the tropes ofthe mountain and the marketplace in the fiction can be adequately
contextualized in the efforts made by monastics to find a place of theirown in the industrialized modern world. The rapidly homogenizedlandscape of contemporary Korea erases the old topographicaldistinction between the mountain and marketplace. This obliteration
figuratively calls for a redefinition of the relationship between wisdomand compassion, the indivisible doctrinal core of Mahayana Buddhism.
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Notes
1. The beginnings of a nuns' monastic community in Korea cannot be precisely
determined due to the lack of historical records. According to Japanese sources, threefemale members of the Japanese imperial family came to Paekche and were ordained
there in the 6th century. This implies that that a sizeable community of nuns was
already existent in Paekche at that time. For early history of Korean nuns, see Kim
Yong-tae's two articles: "Paekche-ui nijungsugye-wa nisungjik kwangye: Ilbonsaryowa Silla mit Namjo-ui sarye chungsim" (The relationship between the ordination andposition of Buddhist nuns in Paekche: Focusing on Japanese historical sources and thecases in Silla and Southern Dynasties), Han'gukmunhwa-wa Wonbulgyo sasang

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International Journal of Korean Studies • Volume VI, Number 1(Korean culture and W6n Buddhist thought) (Iri: Wongwang University Press, 1975),
pp. 1-19; and "Silla-ui y6s6ng ch'ulga-wa nisungjik koch'al: Toyunarang ani-ml
chungsim-uro" (A study of the Silla women who left home and of the position of
Buddhist nuns: Focusing on Toyunarang Ani), Myongsong sunim kohuikinyom
pulgyohak nonmunjip (A collection of essays in Buddhist studies in commemorationof the Venerable Myongsong's seventieth birthday) (Seoul: Pulkwang Press, 2000), pp.
37-64.
2. In light of the paucity of material on Korean Buddhist nuns, Ha Ch'un-saeng's
Kkaedalum-iii kkot: Han'guk pulgyo-rul pinnaen kunse pigunidul (Flowers ofenlightenment: Buddhist nuns who brought glory to Buddhism in the modern period),
2 vols. (Seoul: Yorae, 2001) is a most welcome contribution to the field of Korean
Buddhism. This book contains thirty-two short biographies of highly respected nunsof the twentieth century.
3. The phrase "aje aje para aje" appears in the Prajnaparamita Sutra [Heart Sutra].
"Udambara" is the Korean transcription of the Sanskrit word "udumbara," which refers
to an auspicious mythical tree whose flowers are said to bloom once in three thousand
years.
4.
Michel Foucault, "Of Other Spaces," Diacritics: A Review of Contemporary
Criticism, 16:1 (1986): 22-27.
5. The social and psychosexual meanings of a woman's shaved head are extensively
examined in Off with Her Head! The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion,
and Culture, eds. Howard Eilberg-Schwartz and Wendy Doniger (Berkeley: Universityof California Press, 1995) and in Hair: Its Power and Meaning in Asian Cultures, eds.
Alf Hiltebeitel and Barbara Miller (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998). For nuns' own
perceptions of the significance of their shaved heads, see Paula Arai's ethnographic
study, Women Living Zen: Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999), pp. 141-42.
6. Han Sung-w6n, Aje Aje Para Aje, 3 vols. (Seoul: Koryowon, 1997), Cover. All
subsequent citations refer to this edition and will appear in the text parenthetically.
7. Diana Paul points out that nuns and prostitutes are sometimes associated with eachother because both perform "roles dissociated from family life." Women in Buddhism:
Images of the Feminine in Mahayana Tradition, 2nd ed. (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1985), p. 79.
8. Paul, op. cit., p. 60
9. Elizabeth Harris, "The Female in Buddhism" in Buddhist Women Across Cultures:
Realizations, ed. Karma Lekshe Tzomo (New York: SUNY Press, 1999), pp. 53-54.
10. In Aje Aje Para Aje, Han consistently uses the metaphors of a diamond and a lotus
flower to indicate the male and female genitals, respectively.
11. This passage is originally from the Samyutta Nikaya.
12. This perception is also widespread in Japan. See Arai's aforementioned book.
Robert Buswell points out the popularity of a similar perspective on monks in Korea
in The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea

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(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), p. 76.
13. Nam Chi-sim, Udambara, 4 vols. (Seoul: Purunsup, 2001), Vol. 2, p. 210. All
subsequent citations refer to this edition and will appear in the text parenthetically.
14. Paul, op. cit, p. 63. With regard to the symbolic meaning of Lady Maya's deathseven days after her delivery of Sakyamuni Buddha, Paul explains that it is a way of
preventing her from having sexual intercourse and thereby protecting her holiness. Paulalso adds that although the ideal.Buddhist mother does not have to be a virgin, sheshould be the "paragon of virtue and chastity" (p. 63). Paul's interpretation sheds aninsightful light on Ch'aeryon's death soon after giving birth to Yung. She practiced
sexual abstinence throughout her marriage, although it was forced by her husband
Taeso, who dreaded a fortuneteller's prophecy on birth defects in his family line. Nam
portrays Ch'aeryon as an ideal woman who charms and inspires Tamsi (Paekchok's
former name) emotionally and intellectually as well as spiritually. Nam describes theirrelationship explicitly in terms of the legendary union between Wonhyo and Princess
Yosok. Yung is, therefore, equivalent to Solchong, the prominent Silla scholar and thealleged son of Wonhyo and Yosok.
15. Christmas Humphreys, A Popular Dictionary of Buddhism, 2nd. ed. (London:
Curzon Press, 1976), s.v. "parivarta."
16. Minjung Buddhism is a good example which shows the participatory attitudes ofyounger generations of monks and nuns toward socio-political issues.

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List of References
Arai, Paula. 1999. Women Living Zen: Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Buswell, Robert. 1992. The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice inContemporary Korea. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Eilberg-Schwartz, Howard and Wendy Doniger, eds. 1995. Off with Her Head! The
Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Foucault, Michel. 1986. "Of Other Spaces." Diacritics: A Review of Contemporary
Criticism 16 (1): 22-27.
Ha Ch'un-saeng. 2001. Kkaedalum-ui kkot: Han'guk pulgyo-rul pinnaen kunse
pigunidul (Flowers of enlightenment: Buddhist nuns who brought glory to
Buddhism in the modern period). 2 vols. Seoul: Y6rae.
Han Sung-won. 1997. Aje Aje Para Aje. 3 vols. Seoul: Koryowon.
Harris, Elizabeth. 1999. "The Female in Buddhism." In Buddhist Women AcrossCultures: Realizations.ed. Karma Lekshe Tzomo. New York: SUNY Press.
Hiltebeitel, Alf and Barbara Miller, eds. 1998. Hair: Its Power and Meaning in Asian
Cultures. Albany: SUNY Press.
Humphreys, Christmas. 1976. A Popular Dictionary of Buddhism. 2nd. ed. London:
Curzon Press.
Kim Yong-tae. 1975. "Paekche-uinijungsugye-wanisungjikkwangye: Ilbonsaryo-wa
SillamitNamjo-ui sarye chungsim" (The relationship between the ordinationand position of Buddhist nuns in Paekche: Focusing on Japanese historicalsources and the cases in Silla and Southern Dynasties). In Han gukmunhwawa Wonbulgyo sasang (Korean culture and Won Buddhist thought). Iri:
Wdngwang University Press, 1-19.
. 2000. "Silla-ui ydsong ch'ulga-wa nisungjik koch'al: Toyunarang ani-rul
chungsim-uro" (A study of the Silla women who left home and of theposition of Buddhist nuns: Focusing on Toyunarang Ani). In Myongsong
sunim kohuikinyom pulgyohaknonmunjip (A collection of essays in Buddhist
studies in commemoration of the Venerable My6ngs6ng's seventiethbirthday). Seoul: Pulkwang Press, 37-64.
Nam Chi-sim. 2001. Udambara. 4 vols. Seoul: Purunsup.
Paul, Diana. 1985. Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in Mahayana
Tradition. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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