Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect on children’s understanding and fear of death of picture books about Buddhist samsara. Samsara in Buddhism means recurrence, like a turning wagon wheel, and it is determined by Karma. Karma is the total effect of actions and conduct of human beings and the source of Samsara. Samsara shows the past, present and future of a human being, therefore it can be the way to overcome the gap between life and death. The education about death was conducted with children for 7 weeks using 7 picture books about Samsara. The subjects in this study were 30 five year-old children (15 experiment group, 15 control groups). Data were analyzed for the mean, standard deviation, t-test and the pre-score and post-score was conducted to verify the effect of the education about death.The findings are as follows: First, education about death through picture books about Buddhist samsara reduces the fear of death and improves understanding of death.Second, there is no significant relation between the religion of children and the fear of death.