S. Korea's largest Buddhist sect to mend fences with gov't

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SEOUL, June 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's largest Buddhist sect on Tuesday said it would mend fences with the government, ending its standoff with officials over budgetary issues.
Venerable Jaseung, head of the Jogye Order, said the sect would normalize its relations with the government and would instead focus on "self-introspection and reform."
"Rather than resorting to restriction, we will pursue active communication to highlight and resolve problems on policies regarding traditional culture," Ven. Jaseung said. "We will return to our roots of practicing communication and harmony."
In January this year, the Jogye Order sent a directive to its member temples banning government officials and lawmakers of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) from attending any Buddhist events. The action followed the GNP's railroading of this year's budget bill in December, slashing state aid for temple stay tourism programs from 18.5 billion won (US$17.1 million) in 2010 to 12.2 billion won.
Government officials later explained that the problem stemmed from miscommunication in earmarking the budget and assured that the funding would be reinstated to the former level. But that wasn't enough to assuage suspicions of religious partiality after President Lee Myung-bak, a pronounced Presbyterian, took office in 2008. The Jogye Order had also declared it would reject state funding until Lee's term ends in February 2013.
"Last December, our order pointed to the government's and the ruling's party's distorted sense of traditional culture and their religious bias, as we restricted their access to temples," Ven. Jaseung said. "This allowed us to change the way we view our relationship with the government and the way we look at preservation of traditional culture."
The Jogye Order partially lifted the access ban on politicians in April, when some Buddhist GNP lawmakers were allowed to hold a mass at a Jogye temple.
Ven. Jaseung said on Tuesday that it will be up to individual temples to hold meetings with government or GNP officials, and that the Jogye Order will also accept state funding that it had refused since the budget cut. The order will also push for amendments on laws governing temples and cultural relics to ensure better preservation of cultural heritage.
"We would like to follow the teaching that the world changes as we change first," the chief monk said, adding a separate body tasked with leading the campaign of self-introspection and reform will soon be established.