page_title: Dongguk University
section_title: Origins of Dongguk University
hierarchical_section_title: Dongguk University / History / Origins of Dongguk University
caption_attribution_description: 한국어: 동국대학교 명진관
context_page_description: Dongguk University is a private, coeducational university in South Korea, based on Buddhism. Established in 1906 as Myeongjin School by Buddhist pioneers of the Association of Buddhism Research, the university gained full university status as Dongguk University in 1953. The university remains one of the few Buddhist-affiliated universities in the world, and is the member of International Association of Buddhist Universities.
  Situated on a hill near Namsan, the university's Seoul campus is in the urban Jung District of central Seoul. The university's symbol animal is an elephant, which stemmed from Queen Māyā of Sakya's precognitive dream of a white elephant about the birth of The Buddha, and the symbol flower is a lotus blossom which reflects the Buddhist truth.
  Dongguk University Seoul campus is organised into 127 undergraduate and graduate schools, which enrolled 1,463,701 undergraduate students and 1,801 graduate students and granted 3,140 bachelor's, 470 master's and 172 doctorate degrees in 2017. Its comprehensive academic programme offers 53 undergraduate majors, together with 59 graduate programmes.
context_section_description: The university began as Myeongjin School on May 8, 1906. Myeongjin School was established by the Association of Buddhism Research and took charge of Buddhism education. Later in 1910 Myeongjin School was renamed as Buddhist Normal School (불교사범학교; 佛敎師範學校), and was renamed as Buddhist Higher Education Institution (불교고등강숙; 佛敎高等講塾) in 1914, and became Central Education Institution (중앙학림; 中央學林) in 1915. Central Education Institution was closed by the Japanese Occupation Government from 1922 to 1928, for the reason that the institution had led Samil Undong uprising. However, Buddhist temples all across colonial Korea donated 601,425 yen and established the Central Administrative Headquarters of the Joseon Buddhism Foundation (조선불교중앙교무원; 朝鮮佛敎中央敎務院) in 1924, and the foundation of Buddhist Specialised School (불교전수학교; 佛敎專修學校) was permitted in 1928. Buddhist Specialised School attained the status of Central Buddhist Professional School (중앙불교전문학교; 中央佛敎專門學校) in 1930, and the Central Administrative Headquarters of the Joseon Buddhism Foundation changed its name to Jogye Academy Foundation in 1940, with also changing the school's name to Hyehwa Professional School (혜화전문학교; 惠化專門學校). On May 30, 1944, Hyehwa Professional School was again closed by Empire of Japan following the mobilization. After the World War II the school was reopened on October 27, 1945, and was expanded into Dongguk College (동국대학; 東國大學) on September 20, 1946.
caption: Myeongjin Hall, the oldest building in Dongguk University
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2518", "Image ImageLength": "2508", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2013:03:26 19:50:49", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "960", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1074", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14696", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "11", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:04:11 10:01:08", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:04:11 10:01:08", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "870723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6918863/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "5/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "12", "EXIF SubSecTime": "09", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "09", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "09", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "650", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "647", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "12", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}