Yale receives $1 million donation for Buddhist Studies
During a trip to the United States, leaders from the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism made a historic donation to advance the study of Korean Buddhism at Yale.
Ada Perlman, Contributing Photographer
On Thursday, representatives of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism visited Yale to present a $1 million gift for Buddhist studies. The donation will be used to bring speakers to campus and sponsor workshops, conferences and events in the Buddhist Studies program.
The Jogye Order, the largest sect of Buddhism in Korea, has never before donated to a university abroad or donated this much to any foreign organization. The donation was spurred by the Jogye Order’s relationship with Hwansoo Kim, a professor of Korean Buddhism and culture, and the sect’s desire to support the academic study of Korean Buddhism at Yale.
“All my fellow monks and nuns know who I am and trust me to make good use of this,” Kim told the News.
Kim became a monk in the Jogye Order at age 15 and has since kept closely in touch with those he met then. He began expanding Yale’s Buddhist Studies Initiative while he was serving as chair of the Council on East Asian Studies.
He said that the Jogye Order asked how they could support his work promoting the academic study of Korean Buddhism. Kim told them that financial support to organize events for students would be most impactful.
According to Kim, the Jogye Order has many priorities in Korea, so investing in a foreign university is special for them. The donation was ultimately made to support “the internationalization of their mission,” he told the News.
A group of approximately 50 people from Korea, including the Venerable Jinwoo, head monk of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, and Jae-woong Yun, president of Dongguk University, visited Yale this week.
They originally came to the United States this week for a series of events in New York City. When they heard about the efforts to expand Buddhist Studies at Yale, Kim said, they decided to make the donation and take a day trip to New Haven.
A 30-minute donation ceremony took place in the University president’s office on Thursday. It was followed by a dinner with the visiting guests and Yale professors, hosted by Macmillan Center Director Steven Wilkinson.
After the donation ceremony, Jinwoo spoke at an event sponsored by the Yale Macmillan Center and the Council on East Asian Studies about his meditation journey as a Buddhist monk. He discussed the significance of his donation to Yale and the importance of American universities advancing Buddhist studies.
“Yale is one of the most prestigious universities in America and Korean Buddhism right now through Seon meditation is working to spread the teachings of peace and happiness for everyone in the world,” said Jinwoo through a translator, Yeonwoo Joh DIV ’25.
Jinwoo also talked about the importance of meditation and offered students advice on how to implement Seon meditation into their daily lives. On Friday, he will travel to the United Nations to propose the adoption of World Meditation Day.
He spoke of his sincere wish for all people to be free of all suffering through being at peace.
“In my approach to life, instead of living with both happiness and unhappiness, I chose to be free from both and be at peace. I am at peace anytime and anywhere,” said Jinwoo in Korean, as translated by Joh.
After talking about his philosophy, he led the audience in a five-minute silent meditation followed by a question and answer session.
Eric Greene, associate professor of religious studies and coordinator of the Buddhist Studies Initiative, wrote that historically there has been much less attention given to the study of Asian religions and philosophical traditions. He noted that Korean Buddhism has been underrepresented in the United States as a field of academic study compared to other regional forms of Buddhism.
“Although Buddhist Studies is only one part of this, my hope is that by growing Buddhist Studies at Yale we can help contribute to making these fields of study more prominent at both the scholarly level and the level of undergraduate teaching, and in this way make something a bit closer to the “global humanities” at Yale nearer to a reality,” Greene wrote to the News.
The study of Buddhism and Buddhist culture at Yale began in the 19th century.