Domesticating the Dharma: Buddhist Cults and the Hwaŏm Synthesis in Silla Korea (review)

Book Reviews Domesticating the Dharma: Buddhist Cults and the Hwaöm Synthesis in Silla Korea by Richard D. McBride II. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007. 228 pp. $33.50 (cloth) The political and social history of Silla Buddhism has remained understudied in Western academia. Richard McBride's monograph, based on a Ph.D. dissertation written under the direction ofRobert Buswell at the University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles, fills a major gap. As we learn from the introduction, the work's basic theoretical assumption is that a purportedly prevailing model ofearly Korean Buddhism , based on distinct doctrinal schools, "not only fails to do justice to what Buddhists were actually doing but also projects artificial boundaries that obscure the mutual interaction between many groups of Buddhists. It likewise neglects how the aristocrats and the royalty deployed Buddhist rituals, practices, and symbolism to provide legitimacy" (p. 9). McBride thus intends "to rectify this outdated model by emphasizing the role ofcults in the domestication ofBuddhism (p. 9)." At the same time, the author sets out to "show how Buddhist cults were deployed by social elites and religious leaders first before passing down to the common people" (p. 9), thus once more questioning the two-tiered distinction between "elite" and "folk" religion. Apart from prefatory matters and the introduction (pp. 1-12), the book consists of the following chapters: (1) "Buddhism and the State in Silla" (pp. 13-32), (2) "The Cult of Maitreya" (pp. 33-61), (3) "The Cult of Avalokiteávara" (pp. 62-85), (4) "The Rise of Hwaöm Buddhism in Silla" (pp. 86-108), and (5) "The Hwaöm Synthesis of Buddhist Cults" (pp. 109-138). The "Concluding Reflections " section (pp. 139-145) is followed by two short appendixes on the Divine Assembly from the Avatamsaka sütra in sixty and eighty rolls (pp. 147-150), notes (pp. 151-177), a glossary ofSinitic logographs, a selected bibliography (pp. 193-216), and an index. Chapter 1 gives a somewhat terse survey of the sociopolitical history of Buddhism in Silla, addressing its introduction as a state religion in the sixth century and the relationship between Buddhism and the aristocratic hwarang youth organization, the aristocracy in general, and most importantly, the ruling houses. Further parts deal with the Buddha-land propaganda and the role of Buddhism in the protection of the state. The Buddha-land ideology here is interpreted as originating in an attempt by the Buddhists to "justify their conversion" at a time when the belief still had not been fully acknowledged. In The Journal ofKorean Studies 13, no. 1 (Fall 2008): 115-144 115 1 16 The Journal ofKorean Studies parallel, McBride asserts that Buddha-land propaganda, in its preliminary stage "confirming thepeople in theirbeliefthat Siila, farfrom being an isolated, backward country at the edge ofthe known world, was, actually, originally a Buddha-land," can be directly linked to the two state rituals designed to "ensure the longevity and prosperity of the Silla state," the Assembly of the Eight Prohibitions and the Lecture ofOne Hundred Monks on the Sutrafor Humane Kings (pp. 26-27). Chapter 2 provides a multifaceted survey on Maitreya beliefand worship. After briefly introducing the dominant role of Maitreya in the Northern Dynasties, Koguryö, and Paekche, McBride discusses diverse issues such as the relationship between Maitreya worship and the hwarang, stone images, and worshiping practices. Having delineated a wide range of cultic practices, McBride stresses that by the end of the eighth century, "the cult of Maitreya was gradually subsumed into the expansive Hwaöm approach ofconceptualizing the Buddhist universe " (p. 56). The chapter concludes with an account of a short revival at the end of the Silla dynasty, when the rebels Kungye (fl. 891-918) and Kyönhwön (892-936) again drew heavily on the Maitreya imagery; and with an assessment ofthe building ofMaitreya temples under Wang Kön (877-943), which according to McBride already had been merged into a pervasive Hwaöm symbolism at that time (pp. 59-61). In a similar vein, chapter 3 sets out with an account on Avalokiteávara worship in medieval Chinese Buddhism and in Paekche. Based on the fact that the amount ofAvalokiteávara images extant from...