Cheontae

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Cheontae
Hangul:	천태
Hanja:	天台
Revised Romanization:	Cheontae
McCune-Reischauer:	Ch'ŏnt'ae

Cheontae is the Korean descendant of the Chinese Buddhist sect Tiantai. Tiantai was introduced to Korea a couple of times during earlier periods, but was not firmly established until the time of Uicheon (1055-1101) who established Cheontae in Goryeo as an independent sect.

Due to Uicheon's influence, it came to be a major force in the world of Goryeo Buddhism. After he returned from Song China in 1086, Uicheon sought to ease conflict between the doctrinal Gyo (教) schools and Seon (禪) schools, believing that the Cheontae doctrine would be effective to this end.

Cheontae as a school has been largely absorbed into the Jogye Seon tradition, but an independent Cheontae sect continues to exist with an estimated 2 million adherents. [1] The sect's headquarters are at Guinsa in Chungcheongbuk-do, near Danyang.