Lincoln Peterson

In 2024, I went to the International Buddhism Expo after it suddenly became very popular. From its marketing, it seems like an effort to get younger people interested in practicing Buddhism. This year, the expo was from April 3rd to April 6. It was next to the Starfield Coex library. Instead of going to look at a bunch of fake books, you should come to the Buddhism expo.

Actually, one of my majors in college was religious studies, so I didn’t want to miss it this year.

The venue is a lot bigger than last time. Before, there were so many people that the line circled around the entire building. This year, I just had to wait about 10 minutes to get in, and it costed 10,000 won per person.

This year they were doing a campaign to help people remember the elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. You can collect cards and different spots, and trade them in at the end. I wasn’t able to get all of them, but they just gave me the missing cards anyways.

Then there was a quiz on Buddhism. I got a 75% on it, but it was kind of hard to read. We got some information about templestay around Korea, which we were planning on going to anyways this year.

Even if you aren’t Buddhist, it’s good to go to a templestay to support the monk’s way of life and to learn about something new.

There were a lot more booths this year compared to last year. There were a lot of younger people as well. And there were many monks as guests that seemed to be having a fun time. They can buy new monk clothes or different Buddhist products.

Actually, many laymen wanted to come to buy some of the monk’s clothes. I wanted to buy one too, but they were sold out of my size.

Like last year, there was a mix of stalls with more traditional Korean art, art from Thailand, Japan, and India, and a lot of contemporary art that was geared at younger people.

You can tell where the art comes from based on its style. This one looks a lot like India or Nepal. I think the religious art from that region looks the most interesting.

I also randomly met an older Korean lady working at a booth who claimed to have met Hillary Clinton, because she went to Yale at the same time as her. I found it kind of funny that that’s the first thing she said to me. I got a book for free from her about how to integrate Buddhism into your daily life.

I stayed right up until the event closed, and before I went home I bought some prayer beads and a statue. But most of the things I really wanted were already sold out when I got there… So I will try again next time.

If you’re interested in going, go to their website here. Actually, even though there are only a few foreigners, I don’t think you need much Korean to have fun! There are hundreds of booths to see. I think the Korean monks will be happy to see Buddhist culture reaching wider audiences, so you should definitely check it out if you are in Korea.