Religion. In Asia, there's radical Islam in the West, and sometimes radical Buddhism in the South East. Christianity is very unknown in China, however the religion is very different in the Korean Peninsula. Let us look into Korea's religion.
In North Korea before 1948, the place had freedom of religion. But now, there is barely freedom of religion, except for one, where North Koreans believe Kim Jung Un and his daddy and granddaddy does not poop and is a god.
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Shining Kim Il Sung- NamuWiki/ (CC) |
Religion in South Korea is, well, has more things to explain.
First of all, Korean Protestants and I think Muslims do not participate in traditional Korean events, like remembering someone who died on his/her death day, et cetra. Catholics and Buddhists participate, though. Traditional beliefs tied with Confucianism and all sorts are not considered religions.
South Korea, according to a 2005 census, is 46.5% No religion, 22.8% Korean Buddhism, 29.2% Christianity (18.3% Protestant, 10.9% Catholic), and the leftover 1.7% are diverse minority religions such as Islam and Hindu.
Buddhism came into the Korean Peninsula in the 6th century and became the national religion of many dynasties until 1392, when the Korean Confucian-believers founded the Joeson dynasty. Buddhism was kind of modified into a type of Buddhism called "Korean Buddhism". It spread around the world, and there are less than 10 Korean Buddhist temples in the Czech Republic. (Simply saying this because I had to study about the Czech Republic in a school project years and years ago.)
Catholicism, just like in other nations, is directly connected to the Vatican City. However, Protestant Christianity is way more complicated, as you can basically make your own Protestant religion in one second. Also, there are hundreds of scam Protestant Christian religions in Korea, and they belong in a group called "사이비 종교" (Psyee-bee Jonggyo). If you heard of the Sewol Ferry disaster that happened in Korea a year ago, the former C.E.O. of the company was a leader of one of these strange religions- 구원파 (Guwon-pa, Miracle Group), in which they claim that they know when they were "saved by god" by the day, hour and minute. However, not all protestant groups are like this. Some protestants didn't participate to behead statues of Buddha in the 80's and 90's. The people who did those things were radical protestants.
For protestant groups that exist in America in Europe, the major three groups are Presbyterianism Church (장로교회), Methodism (감리교회), and the Baptists (침례교회).
There are 40,000 Korean nationals who are Muslims, and there is a larger population for foreign Muslim labor workers. Same as Hindu.
As of overseas Koreans, Korean Buddhist temples were built (There's actually one in Metro Vancouver), and quite a lot of Catholic and Protestant churches that usually has like 1 English mass and the rest is just in Korean.
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| St. Andrew Kim Korean Catholic Church, Metro Vancouver |
And that's it for Korea's religion.
Contact me at: thekoreanstory.outlook.com
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