SEOUL, (Reuters) – 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 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 some 10 million followers, or about a fifth of the population, made a public apology on Friday, vowing “self-repentance”.
South Korean TV networks aired shots of monks playing poker, some smoking and drinking, after gathering at a luxury lakeside hotel in late April for a fellow monk’s memorial service. “The stakes for 13 hours of gambling were more than 1 billion won ($875,300),” Seongho, a senior monk who uses one name, told Reuters on Friday.
