'Mad Monk' Jung Kwang's art returns to Jeju Island Posted : 2021-07-03 12:06 By Park Han-sol The Jeju Island-born Buddhist monk Jung Kwang (1935-2002), whose birth name was Go Chang-ryul, was identified with several different, sometimes contradicting nicknames: "The Mad Monk," "The Mop Monk" (or his own favorite "The Buddhist Mop") and "The Picasso of Korea." As this series of monikers indicates, the late monk-artist was an idiosyncratic figure during his time, painting and writing pieces that were deemed vulgar and contrary to the precepts of the ascetic Zen Buddhism. As a daring rule breaker, his controversial behaviors and outspokenness eventually saw him expelled from the monastery in 1979, 19 years after his entrance.