The Academy of Buddhist Studies at Dongguk University (Ven. Jagwang, Head of Academy) published Volume 30, No. 2, of the International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture (IJTBC).

The IJBTC (co-editors: Kim Jong-wook of Dongguk University and Richard McBride of Brigham Young University) is the only English-language Buddhist journal in Korea, with eight foreign scholars from India, the United States, Thailand, Taiwan, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and Mongolia participating as members of the editorial board.

The IJBTC, Korea's first international journal specializing in Buddhism, was selected as a registered journal under the National Research Foundation of Korea (KCI) in 2010 and has maintained its status until now. It has been considered to have set the stage for the internationalization of Korean Buddhism and academic research in Korea. In 2018, it was registered in the citation indexes of the new Thomson Reuters database, “Emerging Sources City Index (ESCI),” and the Atlas Religion Database (Atla DB) of the American Theological Library Association.

Vol. 30, No. 2, of the IJTBC, recognized as a major academic journal both domestically (KCI) and internationally (ESCI, Atla), published five special papers, two research papers, and two reviews. The authors are leading and emerging researchers who are internationally diverse and possess academic expertise from Emory University and Alabama State University in the United States; The French School of the Far East; Cambridge University and the British Museum in the United Kingdom; Toyo University of Japan; and Ewha Womans University, Chonnam National University, and Seoul National University in Korea, which have prestigious departments of history, philosophy, and Buddhist studies within their respective countries. The special theme of Vol. 30, No. 2, of the IJTBC is “Dhāraṇī and Mantra in Ritual, Art, and Text,” for which five papers have been published. For this special edition, Professor Paul Copp of the University of Chicago in the United States, who is recognized as a world-renowned scholar in East Asian language and civilization, and Professor Kim Yeon-mi of the Department of Art History at Ewha Womans University, who has been focusing on East Asian Buddhist art, participated as guest editors.

Papers on various topics, in which leading researchers such as Ellen Gough of Emory University in the United States, Olivier de Bernon of The French School of the Far East, and Gergely Hidas of the British Museum participated, have been published. These are expected to contribute to a philosophical and historical consideration of Dhāraṇī, which was considered only as a religious and cultural asset.

In addition to the special papers, research papers also included papers such as “An Account of Generous Action and Esteem in Pāli Buddhism” by Professor Nicholas Jones at Alabama State University in the United States and two in-depth reviews on the latest research results. The two reviews, which discuss recently published and remarkable Buddhist journals from a serious and open perspective, will also play a major role in navigating the current status of Buddhist studies.

This will be an opportunity to expand the horizons of Buddhism and actively discuss directions for future research and international academic exchanges through the latest research achievements of world-class scholars representing each field and papers based on the same. The entire journal is available on the Academy of Buddhist Studies website.