Denominations
Jogye Order
Buddhism
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The Jogye Order (Daehan Bulgyo Jogyejong) is the largest order of Korean Buddhism, administering the great majority of Korea's traditional Buddhist temples through its central executive council, the Chongmuwon, based in Seoul. Its modern institutional form dates to a 1962 reunification of Korea's celibate monastic Seon (Zen) tradition. The order has faced a series of publicly reported governance scandals since the 1990s, most visibly a 2012 incident in which senior monks were filmed gambling, drinking and smoking at a hotel during a memorial gathering, which forced the resignation of six of its leaders and drew public calls for greater financial transparency in Buddhist orders.
Facts
Finances
Institutional Wealth or FinancesThe Jogye Order's central executive body, the Chongmuwon, oversees an annual budget of about 30 billion Korean won, according to a Korea Herald report published 16 May 2012 during the order's gambling-scandal controversy. No more detailed balance sheet, asset total or audited account for the order is publicly documented. 3 Basis of the Wealth FigureJournalistic or Scholarly Estimate 3 Financial Disclosure RegimeThe Jogye Order publishes no consolidated public budget or asset report; what financial figures exist come from press reporting, mostly during periods of scandal. A 2012 incident in which senior monks were filmed gambling with what was reported as donation-derived funds prompted public calls, reported by the Korea Times, for external financial transparency requirements on Buddhist orders that have not been enacted. The gambling stakes themselves are reported at three mutually incompatible amounts across outlets (4 to 5 million won, hundreds of millions of won, and over 1 billion won), so no single figure for that incident is recorded here. 3 Wealth Figure As Of Year History
Separation or DivergenceIts present institutional form dates to a 1962 reunification of Korea's celibate monastic Seon tradition, following decades of division between celibate and married clergy factions during and after the Japanese colonial period. 2 Belief
Defining Doctrinal PositionAwakening by one's own effort (jiriki) 2 Defining Doctrinal PositionAwakening as sudden and direct, outside the scriptures 1 Defining Doctrinal PositionAwakening through graded cultivation 1 Held together with sudden-awakening as one formula, donojeomsu (sudden awakening followed by gradual cultivation), the synthesis National Master Jinul built the order's meditation training on: an initial breakthrough that the practice which follows must still ripen into full realization, not two rival positions. Defining Doctrinal PositionAwakening is the ground already present, not an outcome 2 Practice
Liturgical LanguageClassical Chinese (read in Sino-Japanese where used in Japan) 2 Origins
FounderTraditionally traced to National Master Jinul (1158-1210), who in 1190 founded a retreat society for concentration and wisdom that became Songgwangsa monastery, reuniting Seon meditation practice with doctrinal study; the modern order holds him as its lineage founder. 1 Organisation
GovernanceA single central governing body over the whole movement 2 OrdinationCelibacy required of the ordained 2 Trajectory
Membership Over TimeSourced to the subject's own accountA 2018 government survey of Korean religious orders recorded the Jogye Order as having 12 million followers, the nominal figure the order itself reports as its wider following. 4 Membership Over TimeSourced to the subject's own accountAs of 2017, the order reported a much narrower 260,000 formally registered followers, a stricter count than its 12 million nominal figure and closer to its active membership rolls. 4 Membership Figure As OfSourced to the subject's own account Membership Figure As OfSourced to the subject's own account Basis of the Membership FigureSourced to the subject's own account In Other Languages (12 names)
- Orden de Jogye
- Jogye
- Ordo Jogye
- 曹渓宗
- 대한불교조계종
- Chogye
- Орден Чоге
- นิกายโชเก
- Tào Khê tông
- 大韩佛教曹溪宗
- Orde de Jogye
- Čogje
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Jogye Order directly: "his birthplace, on the founder of the Jogye order of Korean Seon Buddhism."
This source names Jogye Order directly: "Wikipedia's article on the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, consulted 2026-08-16, naming the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's 2018 religion survey (12 million nominal followers, 2019-01-14)..."
This source names Jogye Order directly: "The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism's own official news page covering the 2013 documentary On the Road, identifying its filming location, Baekheung-am hermitage, as sitting within Eunhae-sa Temple..."
This source names Jogye Order directly: "his tenure as Supreme Patriarch of the Jogye Order from 1981 to 1993, and his role reforming Korean Buddhism in the postwar era."
Founded By
The largest body of Korean Buddhism today traces its line to Jinul's Songgwangsa reform.
Objects and Practices of This Tradition
The modern Jogye Order regards Hyujeong's dharma lineage as the source of its own line of transmission.
Filmed at Baekheung-am, a nun's training hermitage within Eunhae-sa Temple, the 10th District Head Temple of the Jogye Order, named specifically as such by the Order's own news page, which also covers the film; stance associated because Lee Chang-jae is an outside documentarian granted rare access, not the Order's own production.
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