Winners of Manhae Prize announced

The Society for the Promotion and Practice of Manhae’s Thoughts announced Thursday (Mar. 1) the winners of the Manhae Prize given in three different categories. A total of seven winners, two in the peace category, three in social service and two in literature, were chosen from among some 50 candidates across the world.The winners in peace category were Aki Ra, a Cambodian peace campaigner, and; Song Wol-ju, a Buddhist monk in Korea. In the social service category, Rene Dupont, Catholic bishop and former head of Andong Catholic Diocese in South Korea,; Dr. Kurt Cribl, mayor of Augsburg, Germany, and; Otani Monshu Koshin, a Buddhist leader in India, were chosen. The literature prize went to Souad Mohammed Al Sabah, a Kuwaiti poet and Prof. Kim Jae-hong, a literary critic in Korea.

The annual award is named after the Manhae, Han Yong-un who had various careers such as Buddhist monk, reformer and renowned poet. It was inaugurated in 1997 for the dissemination of the high thinking and noble mind of Reverend Manhae. As a noted poet, Manhae also fought against the tyranny of Japanese colonial rule, armed with the ideas of freedom, equality, harmony and peace.

Major winners of the prize in previous years include former President Kim Dae-jung and Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa. Both were the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The award ceremony will be held on Aug. 12 when the Manhae Festival is scheduled to kick off.

Among the winners this year, Souad Mohammed Al Sabah, winner in literature, is the first among Arab women. A member of the Kuwaiti royal family, she has devoted herself to the enhancement of women’s status in Arab countries through her literary movement.

<Souad Mohammed Al Sabah>

She is known to be the most popular female poet in Arab world and is considered one of the most promising candidates of Novel Literature Prize in the coming years. Particularly, she attracted attention of Arab world through her poetical works including “Will You Let Me Love My Country” in which she bitterly criticized the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The poem drew strong support and sympathy from the people of Kuwait and neighboring countries.

The 70-year old poet has published some 15 volumes of her works since 1961. Her major works include “Early Flashes,” “Moments in My Life,” “Of My Lifetime,” “A Wish,” “To You, My Son,” “Fragments of a Woman,” “In the Beginning was Woman,” and “Dialogue of Roses and Guns.”

The other literature awardee Kim is now a professor of Kyunghee University in Seoul. He is an expert in modern Korean poetry and was awarded the Manhae prize in recognition of his contribution to research and analysis of modern Korean poetry from the esthetic point of view.

<Aki Ra>

Cambodian peace campaigner Aki Ra, a prece prize winner,  is an expert in removing landmines. He leads a campaign in his country to find and remove antipersonnel landmines, which remain throughout the country. He was a Khmer Rouge soldier and was forced to plant as many as 4,000 to 5,000 mines a month when his country was ruled by the tyrannical regime.

He said “I had no other choice but to obey the order of the Khmer Rouge and participated in the work of planting the lethal bombs aiming at the lives of my fellow Cambodian people.”

Cambodian authorities believe that four to six million landmines remain buried across the nation. As many as 63,000 landmine-related accidents have been reported including 19,000 deaths.

Th other peace prize winner, Monk Song, 78, has played a leading role in the reform movement of Buddhism in Korea. He was recognized for his devotion to relief activities for people in North Korea and other poor nations.

Bishop Rene Dupont, an awardee in social service, came to Korea in 1954, a year after he was ordained as a Catholic priest in France. He spent his career working to enhance political consciousness of poor farmers through the peasant movement in Korea. He also played a major role in the democratic movement of Korea in 1970s while serving as the head of the Andong Diocese, southeast of Seoul.

Dr. Kurt Cribl, another awardee in social service, is known to have played a pivotal role in making
Augsburg a world-renowned Peace City by hosting the Women’s Soccer World Cup and by inaugurating a variety of peace and literary festivals and religious conferences. The German city was the center stage of the Reformation.

Otani Monshu Koshin, the third social service awardee, is the Minister of Buddhism in India. He won the prize in recognition of his contribution to relief activities for Tibetan refugees in his country. He has also directed a project to build houses for poor elderly citizens of his country.

The award-giving ceremony will take place on Aug. 12 in Bekdam Temple, located in Kangwon Province near the east coast, where Manhae once stayed for writing poems during his lifetime.

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