Monday, May 19, 2014

Religion in Bhutan and Korea


This post is the show the difference in religion between South Korea and Bhutan. There are various religion in South Korea and some people choose not to have any religion. Whereas, Bhutan is a Buddhist country (with around 30% Hinduism). 

Most of fhe People in Korea would go to church on Sundays. Few would go to temples. Some people would visit temple or church just because they are beautiful, not necessarily because they believe that religion. In Korea, children can choose different religion from their parents. Some of my collegues use to say "My parents are Buddhist but I am Christian". 

While in Bhutan, if a person is born in a Buddhist family, you become Buddhist. It is safe to say that in the case of Bhutan, you are born with a religion. It is rare to see children and parents believing different religion. Bhutan's population consist of around 30% Nepali ethnic who believe in Hinduism. Most of them believe practice both hinduism and buddhism. Despite the differences, Bhutanese citizens doesn't show hostility towards any religion. 


In Korea, temples are decorated with paper lanterns occasionally. Many Koreans visit the temple to pray and some to enjoy the night scenary of the beautiful lanterns. In Seoul, we can also see many foreigners visiting temples with cameras. 


Sunday, May 18, 2014

Elementary school students learning about Bhutan

Students in Korea are really curious about Bhutan. They hardly know anything about Bhutan. When I got to the class, the students asked me many questions such as " is there television in Bhutan?" Or " do Bhutanese people use smart phones?". The young generations are really smart. They know that Korea is one of the top 10 economy in the world. Therefore, they tend to think that countries which are less developed than Korea won't have access to technologies that they get access to. 

Through my class, I hope the young Koreans will be able to change their perceptions on least developed countries. In other words, I hope they don't make themselves look naive when they are adult by asking some questions with obvious answers.