Folk Traits in the Buddhist Chant of Korea

Abstract

Buddhism was imported into Korea in the fourth century A.D. from India, but documents on Buddhist music did not appear until the eighth and ninth centuries. The contemporary Silla (57 B.C.-935 A.D.) Buddhist chant was well documented in the book of a Japanese monk Yennin , who stated that there was one Korean temple called Choksanwon 亦山院, in Tungju on the Shantung penninsula 山東半島 in China, where T'ang, Korean and Japanese-style Buddhist chants were all used. The fact that Korean-style Buddhist chant existed at that time indicates that Buddhism was already Koreanized. This chant is still sung today as. the hossori chant of contem·porary Buddhist ceremonies, and the scale of this chant is identical to that of folk songs of the eastern part of Korea, originally Silla territory.