A direct light type backlight unit and a liquid crystal panel employing the same. The backlight unit includes a plurality of light emitting devices disposed at a predetermined angle on a substrate; and a grating which diffracts incident light from the light emitting devices at different diffraction angles to separate the incident light into a plurality of colored light beams. The backlight unit and the liquid crystal display include direct light type light sources emitting light at an optimal angle to provide maximum diffraction efficiency of the grating, which allows color image realization without the use of a color filter.