Remembering Roh Mu-hyun

On May 23rd, Roh Mu-hyun, former president of South Korea, commited suicide. At the time, he and his family were under investigation for financial improprieties. On the way to a lecture last week I saw there was an area set aside for people to pay their respects to Mr. Roh. I took a few pictures. I will comment more on this in future entries.

In front of the main temple building there were a few banners behind which was a stage with the president's photo. People were going up and bowing in front of the picture. The banner in the middle says "Praying for President Roh Mu-hyun's passage into Nirvana." The one on the left says "Don't be troubled or resentful." The one on the right says "Are not death and life one?" These two statements are very similar to ones left in the president's suicide note.

People were able to leave messages behind of how they felt.

Here is the stage where people were going up to bow. The line was not that long but it seemed to have a steady stream of people. This was not the only memorial site so I think that's why.

Here, in contrast, is a non-Buddhist memorial site set up at Yonsei University (a Protestant institution).

Roh was baptized a Catholic in 1989 but I think he never practiced that faith very actively. His wife and her family are Buddhist so it seems that Buddhism is the dominant way of remembering him. I'm going to do a bit more research on this and post more in the future.