Busan Buddhism expo opens with 355 booths and a bid to become an international wellness event
The 2026 Busan International Buddhism Expo opened Aug. 6 at BEXCO with about 355 booths and an expected 70,000 visitors, running through Aug. 9 under a theme built on the Buddhist concept of emptiness.
The 2026 Busan International Buddhism Expo opened with a ceremony at 2 p.m. on Aug. 6 in Hall 3 of BEXCO Exhibition Center 1 in Busan and runs through Aug. 9, according to the expo secretariat. The event is hosted by the Buddhist Newspaper and the Busan Buddhist Broadcasting Foundation and features about 355 booths, with organizers expecting some 70,000 visitors.
This year’s theme — a play on the Heart Sutra line that form is emptiness and emptiness is form, framed as “the ball games you love” — turns the Buddhist idea of emptiness into experiential content, the secretariat said, using the Korean word for emptiness that also means ball. Participatory features include a “ball draw” in which visitors use expo coins to pull balls containing question slips, fortune slips or winning tickets for a lucky ball, and a “ball collection” project in which wishes written on vow slips are placed inside balls and deposited in collection boxes at the venue. A “Hall of Fortune” displays lucky balls from figures including the monk Jinwoo, actor Moon So-ri, singer Woo Won-jae, DJ SODA and baseball player Lee Dae-ho.
The exhibition is organized into four sections covering meditation culture, meditation crafts, temple food and meditation arts. A Four Noble Truths stamp tour runs across nine temple booths — Beomeosa, Jeonggaksa, Mitaseonwon, Samgwangsa, Hanmaum Seonwon, Bokcheonsa, Gosimjeongsa, Naewonjeongsa and Hongbeopsa — with prizes for visitors who reach at least three.
Stage programming includes daily 108-bow prostration practice, temple food demonstrations by the monks Seonjae, Daean and Dorim, singing bowl meditation, fusion traditional music performances and the Sdam Sdam talk show. Congratulatory performances are being given by the Hyewon Boys and Girls Choir, the Beomeosa Children’s Choir and the BBS Busan Boys and Girls Choir.
The opening ceremony proceeded through a tape cutting, the Three Refuges, a recitation of the Heart Sutra, an opening address, congratulatory and encouragement remarks, the choir performance, the Four Great Vows and a tour of the exhibition hall. Attendees included the monks Jinwoo, Wonheo, Jugyeong, Jeongo and Gwangyong; Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo; Busan Metropolitan Council Speaker Kang Moo-gil; Jeonggak Society honorary chairmen Lee Heon-seung and Joo Ho-young; Busan Buddhist Federation lay association head Lee Yun-hee; Korea National Park Service Chairman Joo Dae-young; and actor Lee Jae-yong. Sponsors include the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the Busan Metropolitan Government and the temples Beomeosa, Tongdosa and Ssanggyesa.
The secretariat said the expo presents a vision of Busan as an international meditation and wellness city and is pushing to grow into an international wellness MICE event, noting that Geumjeongsan has been designated the country’s 24th national park. Following earlier editions in Seoul and Daegu, the Busan event has grown over the past two years into a participatory cultural festival for residents and young people, and organizers set the leap to an international expo as this year’s first goal. Details are available on the official website at www.busanbexpo.kr and through the Seoul office.