Taego

Characteristics

The Taego Order formed in the 1970s from the monks left out of the then Christian-dominated military government's officially recognized group of monks that became the Jogye Order. This group consisted of 300 celibate Seon practitioners. One result of this split was that the ritual masters all remained with what became the Taego Order. Today, the Taego Order preserves the full ritual tradition of Korean Buddhism, including the Yeongsanjae, which is a reenactment of the Buddha's preaching of the Lotus Sutra on Vulture Peak. This ritual is held each year at Bongwonsa on June 6, South Korea's Memorial Day, in part to pray for the dead from the Korean War.