Cheontae Buddhist Culture Research Center

The Cheontae Buddhist Culture Research Center(天台佛敎文化硏究院) was opened as the research institute established by Chontae Order of Korean Buddhism in B.E. 2540(1996). It was established to research and develop plans to cast new light on and practice thought of the Tiantai marvelous law of the One-vehicle (天台一乘妙法) to this age by embracing overall Buddhist Studies in accordance with the will of Supreme Patriarch Sangwol Wongak, 중창조 of Tiantai Buddhism.

By B.E. 2551(2007), the academic projects that studied life and thought of Supreme Patriarch Sangwol Wongak in depth and made them famous were much more strengthened as the center name was changed to Wongak Buddhist thought (圓覺佛敎思想硏究院) in B.E. 2551(2007). As a result, the international seminar to celebrate Supreme Patriarch Sangwol Wongak's 100th birthday was successfully held in 2011. After that, the name of the research center was restored to the Cheontae Buddhist Culture Research Center in B.E. 2558(2014) and the changed name has been used until now.

This research center has collected, arranged, and studied literature related to Tiantai Studies and materials related to Supreme Patriarch Sangwol Wongak systematically and widely and futhermore, has been very much interested in exchange among domestic and overseas Buddhism research centers. As the researcher has arranged all sorts of Buddhist Studies based on these, it has especially translated and annotated major literature of Tiantai Scriptures (天台宗典) and Tiantai teaching and learning and systemized Tiantai thought (天台思想) and Tiantai Buddhism history (天台宗史). And it has made efforts to publish quotations (語錄), collections of Buddhist sermons (法語集), and biography (傳記) of Supreme Patriarch Sangwol Wongak and cast academic light on the leaders.

The research center has held symposiums every year since it was established. Tiantai Buddhism Symposium has provided opportunities to present research for domestic rising scholars as the place to discuss subjects related to Buddhist sermons Tiantai. The Tiantai Buddhism Symposium has been prepared as the place of academic hard studies that domestic and overseas Buddhist scholars exchange various subjects. The presented results are recorded in 『Research on Tiantai studies (天台學硏究)』, the collections of dissertations which are published every year, and offered to the domestic and overseas researchers. For research on Tiantai studies (天台學硏究), the 17th collections have been published as of 2014 as the only professional journal related to the Buddhist sermon Tiantai in Korea.

We hope that you will continue to encourage the research center and be interested in its activities.