Six leaders from South Korea’s biggest Buddhist order have quit after secret video footage showed some supposedly serene monks raising hell, playing high-stakes poker, drinking and smoking.
The scandal erupted just days before South Koreans observe a national holiday to celebrate the birth of Buddha, the holiest day of the religion’s calendar.
The head of the Jogye order, which has about 10 million followers, or about a fifth of the population, — made a public apology yesterday, vowing “self-repentance.”
South Korean TV networks aired shots of monks playing poker, some smoking and drinking, after gathering at a luxury lakeside hotel late last month for a fellow monk’s memorial service.
“The stakes for 13 hours of gambling were more than 1 billion won (US$875,300),” Seongho, a senior monk who uses one name, said yesterday.
He said he had reported the incident to prosecutors.
Gambling outside of licensed casinos and horse racing tracks is illegal in South Korea and frowned upon by religious leaders.
“Basically, Buddhist rules say don’t steal. Look at what they did, they abused money from Buddhists for gambling,” Seongho said.
The behavior of the supposedly abstemious monks has led to South Korean media speculation of a power split within the order.
Seongho said that he had obtained a thumb drive that contains a video clip from a camera hidden in the hotel.
He would not say who his source was because of recent threats made against him.
The wayward monks appear to have upset many in South Korea.
“A group of monks who gamble, drink and smoke in a hotel room is tainted in the eyes of all people in the nation,” civic group Buddhist Solidarity for Reform said in a statement.
The scandal also excited attention on Twitter, with some posts calling for reforms within the sect.
“… it can be good news. Please, Jogye order, cut out the rotten part before it gets worse and take this opportunity to be reborn,” one Twitter post said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS