Will angry Buddhist monks calm down?
Monks from across the country gather at Jogye Temple in central Seoul, Jan. 21, to participate in a rally denouncing the central government of treating the country's Buddhism sects unfairly compared to other religions. Some 5,000 monks and Buddhists gathered at the temple. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
5,000 monks, Buddhists rally against gov't's 'anti-Buddhist bias'
By Ko Dong-hwan
It all started with a ruling party lawmaker comparing a Buddhist temple with a blind con artist who appears in a popular Korean folktale.
Last year, Rep. Jung Chung-rae of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) likened Haein Temple on Mount Gaya to Bongi Kim Seon-dal, a popular Korean folklore character known as one of the most brilliant swindlers of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom. Out of all the deceitful acts he is portrayed to have pulled off, the most famous one is selling the entire Taedong River in South Pyongan Province (now in western North Korea) to a greedy merchant for an extravagant amount of money.
How Kim hoodwinked the merchant into buying the river is where his ingenuity clicked. Seeing farmhands coming to the river to take a bucketful of water, he gave a penny to each of them and asked them to give the money back to him when they see him at the entrance to Pyongyang Fort while carrying their water-filled buckets, so that they would appear to be paying him for the water.
A merchant saw this and inquired to Kim about the dubious transactions. He told the merchant he possesses ownership rights to the river that were passed down by his ancestors for generations, so the farmhands were buying water from him. The merchant begged Kim to sell him the ownership rights to the river. Kim sold the rights for 4,000 yang ― enough to buy 60 oxen back then. When the merchant told the farmhands to pay him for the water, they angrily refused.
The traditional trickster took on fresh significance last October, when the National Assembly held an audit of the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA). Rep. Jung, who is also a member of the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, pointed out during the audit that Haein Temple in Hapcheon County, South Gyeongsang Province, has been collecting an entrance fee of 3,000 won ($2.50) from each adult visitor and a smaller fee from teens and children.
“The ticket booth is some 3.5 kilometers away from the temple, but visitors to the reserve who weren't going to the temple also must pass the ticket booth and pay the fees,” Rep. Jung told CHA President Kim Hyun-mo during the audit, criticizing the temple's money-collecting practice. “The temple is no better than Bongi Kim Seon-dal.”
The remark turned Jung into an arch villain of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the largest Buddhist sect in the country whose followers number in the millions. Haein Temple rebutted Jung's remarks later that month, saying the head temple of the Jogye Order, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, houses national heritage artifacts like the depositories for “Tripitaka Koreana” woodblocks, which entitle the temple to collect admission fees under the Law for Protection of Cultural Property of Korea. A large mountain forest area covering the temple was also designated as a national landscape reserve, according to the temple.
“The ticket booth is located about 1 kilometer inside the reserve, so what's the problem (with visitors to the reserve paying fees)?” the temple argued. “Jung, who apparently didn't understand the site's locale and the admission practice in detail, publicly treated the temple as Bongi Kim Seon-dal. Unless he makes a sincere apology, the consequences will fall on both him and the DPK.”
Rep. Jung Chung-rae, second from left, arrives at Jogye Temple on Friday to meet rally participants. However, he turned back and headed to the National Assembly instead. Yonhap
Ruling party tries to mend ties with Jogye Order
Jung refused to apologize at first. The monks began staging a series of protests in front of the DPK headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, demanding his ouster from the party. Jung refused to leave the party, saying two things he will never do are divorce his wife and quit the party. Seeing the monks' mounting anger, politicians from the DPK repeatedly sought the Jogye Order's inner circle to plead for forgiveness on behalf of Jung ― including party chairman Song Young-gil, DPK presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung and his wife Kim Hye-kyung.
Thirty-six party lawmakers even bowed 108 times in front of the Jogye Order leaders on Jan. 17 to seek forgiveness, only to be sent back fruitlessly. For the politicians, the support of millions of Buddhist voters is at stake.
The Jogye Order on Friday held a rally of disgruntled monks and Buddhists from across the country at its headquarters in Jogye Temple in central Seoul. A source at the sect told The Korea Times the participants numbered about 5,000, including monks from the main and branch temples, as well as members of 30 different sects from the Association of Korean Buddhist Orders.
Jung's remark wasn't the only thing that incited the rally. The insider, who wished to remain anonymous, said the rally represents those who have been fed up with “the Moon Jae-in administration's religious bias that has been mistreating Buddhism.” Examples mentioned by the insider included the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's campaign to provide copyright-free Christmas carols to shop owners, which the Buddhist sect said was clear evidence of bias using taxpayers' money towards supporting a specific religion; and the Gwangju city government in Gyeonggi Province designating the “Cheonjinam Pilgrimage Route” as a Catholic site despite its historical relevance to Buddhists as well.
“We will hold another rally of monks and Buddhists in a larger scale than today at the end of February if Jung keeps refusing our demands to leave the party,” the insider said, adding that the location of the next rally hasn't been decided yet. Asked whether the rally organizers were mindful of the March 9 presidential election, he denied it, saying the rally was “only planned to denounce the Moon administration's religious bias and is totally unrelated to the election.”
Rep. Jung headed to Jogye Temple on Friday to meet the rally participants and apologize. But after receiving a call from his party while en route, the lawmaker turned back and went to the National Assembly where he made an apology that was aired on TV.
“I visited 10 local temples with 1,000 years of history as my first schedule this year,” Jung said. “I learned a lot from the great monks there.”
Jung said he will strive to be more modest and support Buddhism's prosperity in this country. But when asked whether he will leave the party, he left the scene without answering.
The Friday rally was fraught with anti-government sentiment, as leading monks made speeches condemning the central government. DPK leader Song showed up at the temple in a wheelchair and another lawmaker was also there, as the Jogye Order allowed them to make speeches before the crowd. But they had to leave quickly due to strong hostility from the crowd. When Culture Minister Hwang Hee appeared on a giant TV screen to apologize on behalf of the central government for what the Jogye Order claimed was religious bias, the crowd booed so loudly that the TV screen had to be shut off before the minister's message was over.
The rally was the first since 2008, when the country's Buddhists took to the streets to protest the Lee Myung-bak administration's illegal surveillance of the Jogye Order's then-president and other high-ranking monks. The Buddhist sect said it holds nationwide rallies “only when it's an urgent matter.” The rally ended without reports of any violent incidents.
With the election less than 50 days away, it remains to be seen whether the bitter feelings of the country's most powerful religious sect toward the central government, the ruling party and its controversial lawmaker will cost the DPK crucial votes.