The traditional Buddhist ritual for the dead, Ch'ondojae, is expanding its ritual object to a great extent these days and accordingly, its function is being more diversified. Even though the Buddhist death ritual is most frequently performed by request of family members in order to transfer the soul of the deceased into the next stage of life, a variety of Ch'ondojae has came into being for the time being. Whereas the former deals with individual human soul, the latter integrates not only soul of animate (animals and plants) and inanimate (eg. the South Gate) beings but also anonymous 'victims' of socio-political violence as well as natural disasters into its ritual object. This paper focuses on this new development of Buddhist death ritual in Korean Society and especially, such rituals which are performed neither for personal reason nor for the sake of individual soul, namely, Buddhist joint ritual for the dead in behalf of anonymous 'victims' of socio-political violence. Of course, this type of Buddhist ritual is not totally new but has a connection with Suryukchae which had been performed as a state ritual at the first part of Yi-dynasty and at latter half rather as a private ritual. This ritual was directed to wandering spirits who met their unnatural death and/or left no posterity to perform the memorial service, primarily to get rid of epidemic or natural disaster which were supposed to be caused by the negative energy these unlucky spirits exert. Notwithstanding some common denominator between traditional Suryukchae and current Buddhist joint death rituals in regard to their ritual object (anonymous victims of socio-political and natural violence) as well as their purposes (to comfort these 'revengeful' spirits), current Buddhist rituals are more complex concerning their function. Although not all these Buddhist rituals are 'rituals of protest' (against ruling system) as Buddhist rituals for the fallen or 'patriotic martyrs' show, the new type of collective Buddhist rituals are often used as a medium through which surpressed local memories are invoked, and critical opinions on the dominant political/economical power as well as consumer culture are collected and addressed but avoiding direct confrontation with the ruling power. Also, as a medium through which the solidarity with marginal social groups as well as global Buddhist communties is strengthened. Therefore, the rituals are religious and political rituals at the same time. This changed function of collective Buddhist ritual in Korean society indicates that a ritual is under modification in relation to its socio-cultural context

The traditional Buddhist ritual for the dead, Ch'ondojae, is expanding its ritual object to a great extent these days and accordingly, its function is being more diversified. Even though the Buddhist death ritual is most frequently performed by request of family members in order to transfer the soul of the deceased into the next stage of life, a variety of Ch'ondojae has came into being for the time being. Whereas the former deals with individual human soul, the latter integrates not only soul of animate (animals and plants) and inanimate (eg. the South Gate) beings but also anonymous 'victims' of socio-political violence as well as natural disasters into its ritual object. This paper focuses on this new development of Buddhist death ritual in Korean Society and especially, such rituals which are performed neither for personal reason nor for the sake of individual soul, namely, Buddhist joint ritual for the dead in behalf of anonymous 'victims' of socio-political violence. Of course, this type of Buddhist ritual is not totally new but has a connection with Suryukchae which had been performed as a state ritual at the first part of Yi-dynasty and at latter half rather as a private ritual. This ritual was directed to wandering spirits who met their unnatural death and/or left no posterity to perform the memorial service, primarily to get rid of epidemic or natural disaster which were supposed to be caused by the negative energy these unlucky spirits exert. Notwithstanding some common denominator between traditional Suryukchae and current Buddhist joint death rituals in regard to their ritual object (anonymous victims of socio-political and natural violence) as well as their purposes (to comfort these 'revengeful' spirits), current Buddhist rituals are more complex concerning their function. Although not all these Buddhist rituals are 'rituals of protest' (against ruling system) as Buddhist rituals for the fallen or 'patriotic martyrs' show, the new type of collective Buddhist rituals are often used as a medium through which surpressed local memories are invoked, and critical opinions on the dominant political/economical power as well as consumer culture are collected and addressed but avoiding direct confrontation with the ruling power. Also, as a medium through which the solidarity with marginal social groups as well as global Buddhist communties is strengthened. Therefore, the rituals are religious and political rituals at the same time. This changed function of collective Buddhist ritual in Korean society indicates that a ritual is under modification in relation to its socio-cultural context

Korean Buddhist death ritual, victims of socio-political violence, political ritual, collective ritual, ritual of protest, politics of memory, locality and globalization.