Humanoid robot Gabi circles a tower during a precept ceremony at Jogye Temple in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
Under a roof of paper lanterns strung across Jogye Temple in downtown Seoul, a group of monks from the Jogye Order, Korea's largest Buddhist sect, sat across from a postulant awaiting a precept ceremony — except that postulant was the country's first humanoid robot to take part in the ritual.
Clad in humble black shoes and the Buddhist order's ceremonial gray and brown robe, the 1.3-meter-tall robot stood in front of Buddhist monks and nuns as it pledged to commit itself to Buddhism in the ceremony held Wednesday, ahead of Buddha's Birthday later this month.
The robot folded its hands together and bowed to the monks officiating the ceremony, as one of the monks carefully hung a 108-bead rosary and attached a sticker instead of the original ritual where one has to slightly burn his arms near an incense stick.
"Will you devote yourself to the holy Buddha?" one of the monks asked.
"Yes, I will devote myself," the robot replied in an audible voice.
"Will you devote yourself to the holy teaching?" the monk asked.
"Yes, I will devote myself," the robot answered.
The monk then laid out five precepts, or common vows, for a Buddhist to live by that were altered for the robot.
They included respecting life and not hurting it, not damaging other robots and objects, following humans and not talking back to them, not behaving or speaking in a deceptive manner, and saving energy and not overcharging.
Source: Korea Times News
