Jogye Buddhist Order takes to the streets against Seoul government
Religious leaders accuse the government of "discriminatory policies" and of favouring the Christian religion. Democratic Party MP Jung Chung-rae was targeted. The controversy was sparked by accusations of fraud and exploitation of places of worship for money by the Order. In the background, the presidential elections and fears of repercussions on the vote.
Seoul (AsiaNews) - The last few months have been marked by a long period of turmoil for Buddhism in South Korea. The country's most important Buddhist movement, the Jogye Order, has been in open conflict with the government in Seoul, and for weeks has been mobilising to express its discontent. Although most of South Korea's religious population is Christian, according to a 2015 census, there are no less than 7.6 million followers of the Buddha.
Disagreements between the Jogye order and the government began in late 2021 when Jung Chung-rae, a ruling Democratic Party of Korea parliamentarian, criticised the religious order for its practice of charging visitors to enter its temples. Specifically, during a parliamentary inquiry in October, Jung (who sits on the Committee on Culture, Sport and Tourism) accused the Haein temple of also charging visitors to the surrounding park, comparing the site's administration to scams engineered by Korean folklore figure Kim Seon-dal.
The Order of Jogye, which manages the temple, part of the Unesco heritage, immediately rejected the accusations and demanded an apology from Jung. However, no apology was forthcoming.
The Buddhist monks then began to organise public demonstrations in front of the Democratic Party headquarters to demand Jung's resignation. In the meantime, new grounds for dissatisfaction were added when the government decided in December to allocate a sum to help small traders pay for the musical rights to Christmas songs, in an attempt to promote the spirit of the festivities. A spokesman for the Order said this was 'an explicit promotion of a specific religion by the government, pushing people towards a particular religious music'. The proposal to establish a Catholic pilgrimage in Korea also met with resistance, because of the inclusion of some sites also relevant to the Buddhist faith.
To show its displeasure at what was perceived as discriminatory policies, the Order of Jogye organised a demonstration in Seoul on 21st January, attended by 5,000 Buddhist monks. The protest took place in a decidedly hostile atmosphere towards the government: in the words of Wonhaeng, the Order's leader, in the current democratic executive 'opportunities have not been fair, the process has not been fair and the results have not been just', sarcastically quoting a piece from President Moon Jae-in's inaugural speech in 2017.
However, the upcoming presidential election, scheduled for 9 March, has given the story a great echo. According to Jung Chung-rae himself, a person close to Democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung approached him to convince him to resign from the party to prevent his controversial statements on the Buddhist temple from damaging the election campaign.
The Buddhist Order has already suggested that it may call for fresh protests by the end of the month if Jung is not ousted from the party. However, the Buddhist monks' stance has itself attracted criticism from South Korean society, especially regarding the organisation of such large gatherings of people despite the country's rapidly worsening pandemic situation. So much so that last week, Wonhaeng had to intervene personally, expressing understanding for the criticism but asking the public to understand the reasons for the protest.
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