Artist Kim Seong-dong of 'Mandala' Passes Away After Battling Cancer at Age 75

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Kim Seongdong, the author of the novels "Mandala" and "Guksu," passed away on the morning of the 25th at Konkuk University Chungju Hospital after battling cancer. He was 75 years old.

Born in 1947 in Boryeong, Chungnam, the late writer dropped out of Seoul Seorabeol High School in 1964 and became a monk at Cheonchuksa Temple on Dobongsan Mountain in 1965, living the life of a practitioner. Due to the collateral punishment system linked to his father’s involvement with the South Korean Workers' Party, he was shackled by social stigma and, after wandering, chose literature as an escape route.

He debuted in 1975 with his first short story "Moktakjo," which won an award in the magazine "Weekly Religion." Without formal monk registration, he once received a notice from the Jogye Order, which took issue with the content of his story, stating that he would be considered as having monk registration and thus expelled.

In 1978, he won an award for the novella "Mandala" in "Korean Literature," and the following year, the work was revised into a full-length novel and published, gaining attention in literary circles.

"Mandala" depicts the process of a monk named Beopun, who, in his sixth year of monastic life, struggles to solve the koan "bird in a bottle," and after meeting a defrocked monk named Jisan, experiences a transformation in his monastic life. In 1981, director Im Kwon-taek made a film of the same name, and in 1992, it was translated and published overseas, starting in France.

Another representative work of the late author, "Guksu," began serialization in the Munhwa Ilbo in 1991 and was completed in six volumes in 2018, 27 years later.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.