A Chinese monk visiting with a Chinese Buddhist delegation has committed suicide after killing another member of the delegation, police said yesterday.
The murder took place at the Forte Hotel in Hsinchu, where the six-member delegation was staying, a duty officer from the Hsinchu Police Bureau said.
The delegation from the Ling Gu Temple in Nanjing, China, arrived on Monday for a six-day visit at the invitation of the Hsuan Chuang Cultural And Educational Foundation.
They checked into the Forte Hotel on Tuesday.
When foundation members arrived at the hotel at about 8am yesterday to pick up the delegation for a tour, they found priest Jing Ran (淨然), 32, lying in a pool of blood on his bed, while Chun Ru (純如), a 52-year-old monk, had committed suicide by jumping from the rooftop of the 12-story hotel, police said.
An initial investigation showed that Quan Ru had lost his entry permit and was chided by Jing Ran, triggering a quarrel.
Late on Tuesday night or early yesterday morning, Quan Ru broke into Jing Ran’s room and hit him on the head with a table lamp before leaping from the rooftop, police said.
“The monk killed the priest while the priest was sleeping. No one knew about it until the Chuan Chuang Foundation people came to pick up the delegation shortly before 8am,” a hotel employee said, asking to remain anonymous.
In Quan Ru’s pocket, police found a note saying: “Call police to arrest me, then I can die in peace.”
Members of the Chinese delegation said that Jing Ran had recently been chosen to become the director of the Ling Gu Temple.
They said Quan Ru held a grudge against Jing Ran as he had often argued with him over how to run the temple.
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