The scholar in question is Robert Buswell, whose memoir of life as a Buddhist monk I have now got to read. Anyway, when he spoke on Dokdo, the Joongang Ilbo listened. The Korea Times was more interested in his thoughts on how to grow Korean Studies in the USA.

“For it to be clearly known in international society that Dokdo is Korean land, Korean scholars must produce concrete data and present to that international society.”

Those were the words of Robert Buswell, the 55-year old president of the Association for Asian Studies, at the ‘미국 내의 한국학 현황과 향후 과제’ forum held at the Seoul Plaza Hotel on the 14th by the Korea Foundation.

Also a professor at UCLA’s Asian Languages and Cultures Department, he explained that, “the agreement between the United States and Japan at the end of the Pacific War did not include any documents related to the Dokdo transfer issue.” If it had been included, he emphasized, Korean sovereignty over Dokdo would have been made clear, but as it was not the role of Korean scholars is that much more important. “American scholars do not know much about Dokdo, so if Korean scholars do their research and present it to them, America will recognize that Dokdo, too, is Korean land.”

President Buswell lamented, “the scope of Korean Studies is quite limited compared to Chinese Studies and Japanese Studies.” Just 5% of the society’s 6,700-plus members are Korean Studies scholars. If compared to the never-ending flow of results from Japanese Studies research, data from Korean Studies is scant and Korea’s voice looks weak. “If you consider the rise of Korea to become a center of trade in East Asia, you’ll see that Korean Studies is the equal of Chinese and Japanese Studies.”

He is the society’s first chair to have majored in Korean Studies. In 1993 he founded the UCLA Center for Korean Studies, the cradle of Korean Studies in the United States. Through his efforts over 200 lectures related to Korea have been held at UCLA, attended by thousands every year.

President Buswell spent five years studying zen Buddhism at Songgwang-sa in Jeollanam-do beginning in 1974, when he was 21 years old. A major in Korean Studies, he came to Korea to personally experience Buddhism. Master Gusan (1901 - 1983), then the head preist Songgwang-sa, bestowed on him the Buddhist name Hye-myeong (慧明) after he was ordained a beginning monk. In 1992 he published a book, “The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea”, based on his experiences there.

He remembered, “after my parents, Master Gusan has had the greatest influence on me. My five-year experience in Korea is the high point of my life.” But, he said, “I still have hazy memories of the dotorimuk we would eat there when the season was right.” He called dotorimuk, made by shelling and crushing acorns into a powder, as a “jelly”. President Buswell said, “when I’m working as a professor and my interest in daily life flags, when there’s just no more room in my mind, I think of when I was studying at Songgwang-sa.”

President Buswell’s doctoral dissertation was titled “The Korean Origin of the Vajrasamadhi-Sutra”. By translating the sutra, created by Won-hyo of Silla and stored by the Jogye Order, Mr. Boswell introduced Korean Studies and Korean Buddhism to America. For this and other works, on the 12th he received the Manhae Grand Prize from the Society for the Promotion and Practice of Manhae’s Thoughts (만해사상실천선양회). The award was created in 1997 to celebrate the life and international culture of Manhae Han Yong-un.