[NEohioPAL] Korean Monks Bring Music of Buddhism to Oberlin College Oct. 30

[Marci Janas]

Media Contact Only:

Marci Janas, Director of Conservatory Media Relations

440-775-8328 (office); 440-667-2724 (cell); marci.janas at oberlin.edu




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Korean Monks Bring the Music of Buddhism

to Oberlin College’s Finney Chapel on October 30



The Oberlin Conservatory of Music Joins with Oberlin College’s East  
Asian Studies and Religion Departments to Present

“The Sound of Ecstasy and Nectar of Enlightenment: Buddhist Ritual  
Song and Dance from Korea”





OBERLIN, OHIO (October 9, 2007) — Harmonies as resonant and  
meditative as the religious devotion they represent will fill Oberlin  
College’s Finney Chapel when the monks of Korea’s Young San  
Preservation Group perform in concert on Tuesday, October 30, 2007,  
at 7 p.m. “The Sound of Ecstasy and Nectar of Enlightenment:  
Buddhist Ritual Song and Dance from Korea” is free and open to the  
public. Finney Chapel is wheelchair accessible, and is located at 90  
North Professor Street, across from Tappan Square on the Oberlin campus.

             The group’s eight monks will perform traditional  
pŏmp’ae, an unwritten music that, like Gregorian chant, must be  
learned by ear and recited by memory. Derived from ancient Buddhist  
ceremonies that were nearly lost to history, pŏmp’ae is marked by  
complex vocal patterns and a pure, heavy tone, with chanting that  
evokes a ruminative calm intended to facilitate spiritual growth. The  
Young San ceremony included offerings of flowers, food, fragrance,  
music, and sacred dance in honor of the Buddha. In the distant past,  
the ceremony was performed throughout Korea to celebrate good fortune  
and mitigate disaster. Traditional Korean drums, cymbals, and gongs  
— as well as a ritualized dance piece known as chakpŏp — will  
accompany the Young San Preservation Group’s singing. The sounds and  
dances of the Young San ceremony were nominated by the government in  
1973 for preservation as a Korean Intangible Cultural Asset.

Under the direction of Venerable Dong Hee, the Young San Preservation  
Group is committed to preserving the Young San ceremony. Dong Hee is  
the first woman to join the special lineage of monks who have  
performed the ceremony. She began her studies of the ceremony at the  
age of 13, under the tutelage of Venerable Song-am Park, a scholar  
who helped preserve the complex ritual despite the Japanese colonial  
government’s (1910-1945) ban on Korean Buddhist ceremonies. Song-am  
Park was designated a Korean Human Cultural Asset. For the last 40  
years, Dong Hee has worked diligently to correctly maintain the  
rituals of the ceremony. In addition to being a highly respected  
religious leader, she is a scholar and an artist; she examined  
ancient records and documents in a dedicated effort to restore the  
original form and colors of the vestments worn by monks in the  
ceremony, and personally prepares all ritual objects for the  
spiritual event.

             The Oberlin performance of “The Sound of Ecstasy and  
Nectar of Enlightenment: Buddhist Ritual Song and Dance from Korea”  
is part of a five-city, cross-country tour that begins with a  
performance on October 21 at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. The  
last performance on the tour takes place at the American Museum of  
Natural History in New York City on November 2.

             The tour of “The Sound of Ecstasy and Nectar of  
Enlightenment: Buddhist Ritual Song and Dance from Korea” is  
sponsored and organized by the Korea Society, with additional support  
from the Arts Council of Korea and the Consulate General of the  
Republic of Korea in San Francisco. The Korea Society is a private,  
nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) organization that is dedicated  
solely to the promotion of greater awareness, understanding, and  
cooperation between the people of the United States and Korea. The  
Oberlin performance is sponsored by the Korea Society, the Freeman  
Foundation Undergraduate Asian Studies Initiative, Oberlin College’s  
Departments of Religion and East Asian Studies, and the Oberlin  
Conservatory of Music. For more information, please call the East  
Asian Studies Program at 440-775-8827, or visit www.oberlin.edu/eas/ 
events/koreanbuddhists.html.



# # #








Marci Janas
Director of Conservatory Media Relations
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
39 West College Street
Oberlin, OH  44074
www.oberlin.edu/con
(P) 440.775.8328
(F) 440.775.5457
marci.janas at oberlin.edu






























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