Photo Essay: Master Su San Funeral Procession

Photos by Doug Stuber

Su San, the most revered Seon (Zen) Buddhist monk since Beop Jeong, died recently, and in a snowy funeral at Baegyansa, a temple well-known to Gwangju residents for its fall colors, streams, and ponds, hundreds of people paid their respects.

Su San had studied Seon Buddhism in his early years as a monk, and painted some of the walls at Bulgapsa (on the west coast of Korea), a temple built in the late 4th century AD after a visit from a Seon monk from India.

More than just a leader, his two main concepts were Seon and farming, and “no work, no food.” This brought new meaning to the Buddhist tradition of hard work, and thus his departure leaves a gap, perhaps not as public as Beop Jeong’s, but a gap nevertheless, in the spreading of wise teachings among the Seon Buddhists in Korea.

Monks and notable Jeollanam-do elected officials paid their respects at a funeral that would certainly have seen even more people in attendance had the weather not been so cold.

The tradition of a long white cloth held by believers streaming back for 500 meters was in place. The walkers who followed the casket to the pyre site chanted all the way, some near tears. Some untied the cloth that held the casket carrying sticks together to take as souvenirs of a life that will be long remembered.