Sansara / 윤회.

 
This photography project is a series of images of a traditional Korean Buddhist funeral ceremony done in 2019, that reveal and visually narrate the concept of Samsāra (輪廻), rebirth and cyclicality of all life, matter, existence. At this time with the traditional funeral culture of Korea having perished, only Dabi (茶毘) – the cremation ceremony of Buddhist monks with 1500 years of history – is preserved in its original form.
In Korea, when someone dies, we say ‘returned,’ which means returning to the place where someone was before she/he was born. It has a special meaning in the Buddhism. After the memorial ceremony, those who remain farewell the deceased Buddhist monk through Dabijang (a crematorium) to the place of his former existence. Dozens of multi-colored ‘manjang (輓章, flags with a funeral odes)’ flutter in the wind, followed by the portrait of a deceased monk and a funeral bier. In the portrait, the monk looks calm and peaceful, as usual. The living stand, trampling their shadow on the ground. The coffin with the disappearing and sublimating body is engulfed in flames, but the funeral bier remains. Some of the living monks trampling shadows on the ground will probably continue and repeat a life similar to the life of a deceased Buddhist monk. Death is not the end but leads to a new beginning and living cycle – Samsāra. 
While most Koreans are now not familiar with a traditional funeral ceremony, the belief in rebirth and the cyclicality of life is still prevalent in our conscious. If Dabi disappears one day, the traditional funeral ceremony of Korea may perish completely. But historical memory can be preserved for centuries through visual storytelling, a series of documentary photographs.


한국에서는 죽음을  돌아가셨다 라고 말한다. 태어나기전 원래 있던 곳으로 다시 돌아간다.