Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Dong Hak ("Oriental Culture") was a Korean religion founded in 1860 by Ch'oe Suun. Dong Hak venerated the god "Hanulnim" ("Lord of Heaven"), and believed that man is not created by a supernatural God, but man is instead caused by an innate God. Koreans have believed in Hanulnim from ancient times, so Dong Hak could be seen to be a truly Korean religion, unlike Buddhism or Christianity. Members of Dong Hak were severely persecuted by the colonial Japanese government, and so, on December 1, 1905, Son, Byong-Hi decided to modernise the religion and usher in an era of openness and transparency in order to legitimise it in the eyes of the Japanese. As a result he officially changed the name of Dong Hak to Chondo Kyo ("Heavenly Way"). This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.