Abstract

Through a case study of Bogwangsa, this article examines the active role played by laity in rebuilding the devotional and material culture of Buddhism in the final decades of the Joseon dynasty. While the monastic community of this royal votive monastery reached out to the laity to ensure its institutional survival, lay devotees made changes to the physical structure and cultic practices at the monastery, heralding new developments soon to follow in the greater capital area. This study probes the questions of why the monastery was patronized by lay devotees of varied social standings and motivations as well as what benefits, religious and secular, they gained as a result. The study pursues this inquiry through an analysis of the networks of followers and their patronage of “Buddhist projects” (bulsa)—from the construction of worship halls and the publication of Pure Land texts to the dedication of Buddhist paintings—centering around Bogwangsa. While influential male members of King Gojong’s court sponsored the monastery in order to endorse the legitimacy of the monarch, male lay devotees of the “middle” (jungin) class and female court members—who were limited by the status system or gender norms— found in this monastery a place of their own in a society dominated by male Confucian elites. This study restores the role of lay Buddhists, little-explored in previous studies, in the revitalization of Buddhism in 19th-century Joseon society, while enriching our understanding of Buddhist devotionalism.