OpinionFake monks and debt thwart grand plans for ancient Buddhist temple in China

A provincial city’s ambitious plans for turning an ancient Buddhist temple near Xian into the world capital of Buddhism and listing it on a stock exchange have stagnated, leaving the temple surrounded by fake monks and sham Buddha statues.

In an investigative report, the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly documents how the project involving the 1,700-year-old Famen Temple in Shaanxi province – which boasts the ownership of Buddha’s finger bone – went horribly wrong.

Now, fake monks from Hubei province roam a nearby scenic park that opened in 2009 and that tourists and pilgrims mistaken as part of the temple. The impostors get commission for collecting donations to the Shaanxi Famen Charitable Foundation.

But clueless visitors do not know the foundation is a front for the operating company of the park, Shaanxi Famen Temple Scenic Park Cultural Industrial Group, and is not related to the temple, the weekly reported last week.

Still the company is not collecting enough donations to make a profit, despite plans to be publicly listed. Last year, it had to take on 320 million yuan (HK$398 million) in debt. In 2011, it already had to borrow some 107 million yuan, according to the report.

The project had started in 2002, when the local government, only a two-hours’ drive west of the provincial capital Xian, decided on betting on the temple’s stature for economic development and windfall profits from rising real estate prices.

In 2004, the city approved to commission the Taiwanese architect CY Lee to build the world’s tallest stupa, a worthy landmark for its ambitious project. Lee had just completed Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which at the time was the world’s tallest building.