- 부디스트채널 서울발 주요기사로 다뤄
정부가 도로명주소 사업을 시행하며 불교와 지역의 역사․문화유적을 배제한 것에 대해 부디스트채널이 주요기사로 보도하면서 세계적인 관심사가 되었다.
 △부디스트채널은 우리나라의 도로명주소 논란을 주요기사로 보도했다. |
이 기사는 코리아타임즈(The Korea Times)의 같은 날 기사를 전재한 것으로, 화계사로가 덕릉로로 바뀐 데 따른 항의 내용, 조계종 기획실장 정만스님과 정부관계자의 말을 인용해 도로명 변경에 따른 논란을 전했다.
이 기사에서는 또 정부와 조계종 사이의 논쟁이 다시 점화할 수 있다는 분석도 내놓았다.
부디스트채널은 2001년 5월 말레이시아에서 불교뉴스네트워크로 운영을 시작했으며, 세계에서 가장 큰 웹 기반을 구축해 영어로 불교뉴스를 서비스하고 있다. 쿠알라룸푸르, 베를린, 콜롬보, 방콕, 런던, 싱가포르, 샌프란시스코의 불자들이 기술 및 편집 지원을 하고 있다.
다음은 부디스트채널 기사 원문.
Street name change irks Buddhists
By Kim Rahn, The Korea Times, July 14, 2011
Jogye Order files complaint against removal of temple-related street names
Seoul, South Korea -- The nation’s largest Buddhist sect is strongly protesting the government’s new address system in which some streets named after temples have been given new names unrelated to Buddhism.
Ven. Jeongman, a spokesman of the Jogye Order, expressed Buddhists’ opposition to the name changes to officials at the Public Administration and Security Ministry who visited Jogye Temple in central Seoul, Thursday.
The protest may re-ignite the dispute between the Lee Myung-bak administration and the nation’s Buddhist sector, which has claimed Lee, a Christian, discriminates against Buddhism.
“Replacing the original temple-related names with new ones is depriving people of identities which have ‘stories.’ We fear the new names may take away from the Korean tradition,” Ven. Jeongman said.
“In the nation’s 5,000-year history, temples have been able to maintain the tradition most effectively. Names of roads and places near temples have stories handed down from ancestors and have been deeply rooted in the lives of nearby villagers,” he said.
The protest follows the government’s introduction of a street name-based address system, giving names to all roads and alleys. The new system will take effect on July 29, while the current system will also be available concurrently until the end of 2013.
But Buddhists recently raised objections to the system, as about 100 temple-related street names have been changed into unrelated ones. For example, Hwagyesa-ro in Gangbuk-gu, northern Seoul, which was named after Hwagye Temple and has been called that since 1984, became Deongneung-ro, named after Deongneung, a nearby royal tomb of Joseon Kingdom.
The Korea Youth Buddhist Association also said that the authorities didn’t take tradition, history and residents’ opinion into consideration in renaming the streets. “About 100 Buddhism-related road names were changed. It indicates the government intends to eliminate Buddhism,” a director of the association said.
The Jogye Order recently asked people from all of its temples across the country to collect cases of such “improper” name changes.
Officials of the order also plan to meet new leaders of the ruling Grand National Party to express their opposition to the new system.
The ministry said it was local authorities who named the streets. “Local authorities decided on the names according to their own circumstances. In most cases, they kept the names,” a ministry official said.
But he showed anger at the order’s current move. “We informed people of the new names last year. We received objections until June 30, and changed some of the names which residents disliked. But people from those temples didn’t raise objections at that time and now say the government is religiously biased.”
The official said there still is a chance for modifications: Residents can file their objections with local authorities three years after the name is first adopted. “If their insistence against the change is reasonable, the name will be changed,” he said.
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=89,10311,0,0,1,0
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