Construction of Building 2 of the 10/27 Memorial Hall in Anseong begins next year... Building 1 in Bongeunsa Temple will be open from 2028.

Construction of the second building in Anseong begins next year... Building 1 in Bongeunsa Temple will be open from 2028.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Go Mi-hye = A memorial hall will be built to remember and heal the wounds of the '10/27 Buddhist Disaster', an incident in which the new military regime suppressed human rights in the Buddhist community in 1980.

According to the performance data book of the 37th Executive Branch (2022-2026) recently published by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the October 27th Buddhist Tribulation Memorial Hall, consisting of a total of two buildings, will begin construction sequentially starting next year.

The October 27 Buddhist Trouble occurred on October 27, 1980, when the new military government, under martial law, searched temples across the country and illegally detained monks in the name of purifying the Buddhist community. At the time, about 1,800 people, including the head of the General Affairs Center, Monk Wolju, were taken into custody and suffered severe violence and torture.

In 2007, the Ministry of National Defense's Past Photo Investigation Committee defined this incident as an incident in which the new military regime unfairly exercised state power against the Buddhist community, and the following year, the 'Act on Restoration of Honor of Victims of the October 27 Incident, etc.' was enacted.

In 2018, then-President Moon Jae-in expressed regret for the first time as a president, saying, "I express my deepest regret for the deep wounds that still remain in the Buddhist community."

The construction of the 10/27 Incident Memorial Hall has been promoted since 2015 to heal the wounds of the past and help restore the reputation of damaged temples and victims and promote human rights. The Jogye Order explained that the purpose is to create a complex Buddhist cultural space where religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution is shared and spread with the people.

The memorial hall will be built in two parts: Building 1, which will be built at Bongeunsa Temple in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and Building 2, which will be built on the site of Amitabha Buddhist Nursing Hospital in Anseong-si, Gyeonggi-do. Building 1 is an exhibition, performance, and educational research facility with a total floor area of ​​31,220㎡, 2 floors above ground, and 4 floors underground, and Building 2 is a healing facility with a total floor area of ​​3,557㎡, 4 floors above ground, and 1 floor underground. The total project cost is 203.3 billion won, which is supported by the national treasury.

Last April, the Ministry of Planning and Budget reviewed the basic design for Building 2, and in May, the economic feasibility review and traffic impact assessment for Building 1 were completed.

Building 2 is scheduled to begin construction next year, and Building 1, where exhibition content research and development and intermediate design are currently in progress, is scheduled to begin construction next year.

Jogye Order said, “The project, which has been repeatedly planning and reviewing for more than 10 years since its launch, has entered the specific stage of design and licensing,” and added, “This is the process in which the promise of recovery, which existed only in planning documents for a long time, is being implemented in ‘physical space.’”