Wookwan

Wookwan entered the Yaksusa temple in the Gwanak Mountains in 1988 under the teaching of the Venerable Jeong Hwa. She graduated from Suwon Bongnyeongsa Sangha University where she also completed research work. She received her master's degree in Buddhist studies and completed her doctoral coursework at the University of Delhi in India; afterwards, she practiced vipasanna meditation in Myanmar and its vicinities.

In September of 2010, Wookwan participated in the first Korean Temple Food Festival held in New York City. The event was extremely well received by the local audience. Following, in October of 2014, she held a lecture and tasting at a Slow Food event held in Turin, Italy, and in 2015 went to Spain to represent Korea at Madrid Fusion 2015 to demonstrate Korean temple cuisine and traditional barley red chili paste; she also held a workshop of temple cuisine at the Korean Cultural Center in Spain.

In August 2016, with invitation from the Korean Cultural Center Kazakhstan, Wookwan presented a temple food workshop, and the following summer in 2017, hosted an exhibition and luncheon event at the Korean Cultural Center in Hungary. December of 2017, she was invited by the Korean Cultural Center New York to hold a special lecture and workshop in partnership with the Natural Gourmet Institute and the Culinary Tech Center.

Within Korea, Wookwan has held numerous lectures and programs hosted by the official educational sector of the Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism under the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism since 2010, and in 2015, she has actively taken part in workshops and teaching events hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korean Food Promotion Institute. As the Director of the Mahayeon Temple Food Cultural Center in Icheon, Korea, she holds regular workshops on temple cuisine and also hosts events in partnership with Gyeonggi Province and Icheon City. Published works include Wookwan Sunim's Temple Food with a Mother's Touch and Wookwan Sunim's The Taste of Awakening in Korean. You can follow her on Instagram @wookwansunim.