China has launched a stringent crackdown on influential Buddhist monks accused of misappropriating temple funds to amass private wealth. This transfer varieties a part of broader efforts to control spiritual establishments and improve transparency inside the quickly increasing “temple economic system” within the nation.
The temple economic system in China is flourishing, with the sector projected to achieve 100 billion yuan by the tip of this yr, in line with The Guardian.
China’s temples have endured a turbulent historical past over the previous eight many years. Many monasteries misplaced their properties in the course of the Nineteen Fifties, whereas a number of temples suffered injury within the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies. Following financial reforms within the Nineteen Eighties, temples regained prominence, relying closely on government-backed tourism to maintain themselves.
The Shaolin Temple, particularly, grew to become a serious emblem of this resurgence and developed right into a profitable enterprise for monks.
The current crackdown was triggered after investigations revealed that Shi Yongxin, the pinnacle abbot of the Shaolin monastery, had reworked the 1,500-year-old website right into a business empire value a whole bunch of tens of millions of yuan.
In July, Shi, sometimes called the “CEO Monk,” was positioned below investigation for alleged fund misappropriation and fathering illegitimate kids with a number of ladies. Inside two weeks, he was faraway from his submit and stripped of his monkhood.
Shi had beforehand courted controversy in 2015 when the Shaolin Temple proposed constructing a virtually $300 million advanced that includes a golf course, lodge, and kung fu college. Throughout an interview with the BBC that yr, he denied allegations of corruption and affairs, stating, “If there have been an issue, it will have surfaced way back.”
Shi will not be the only real spiritual determine implicated in monetary misconduct. Earlier in August, a video circulated on-line exhibiting monks at Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou counting giant sums of cash.
In a separate case, monk Wu Bing was stripped of his title and investigated in July for allegedly diverting donations meant for susceptible ladies and kids for his personal extravagant life-style. Wu reportedly solicited public donations, claiming the funds would help single pregnant ladies and impoverished kids, however is accused of utilizing the cash for private luxurious.
China’s crackdown alerts a concerted effort to rein in monetary abuses inside its spiritual establishments because the temple economic system continues to develop.