Guan Tian Long is a former Chinese monk whistleblowing on temples in China. A former clothing retailer living a life of debauchery, he initially thought that the temples could give him some purpose in life. After trying out for 6 months, studying the scriptures, he was liked what he saw and immersed himself completely in monastic life.
That was when he realised that the ecosystems inside these Chinese temples are even less wholesome than the world of householders. However, he maintains that he respects what Buddhism teaches in theory. It’s just that the people in charge in the temples don’t practise what they preach. While the law still recognises and identifies these people as monks, morally, these monks are fakes.
The higher a monk’s position in the temple, the more he is involved in the business aspects of the temple like collecting money and managing finances. Abbots own cars worth millions of yuan, a Lincoln Navigator to be exact. The abbot splurged on skincare products and wore tailored robes worth tens of thousands of yuan.
The normal monks in the temple are required to memorise and chant the scriptures. The abbot couldn’t even recite the scriptures. Even illiterate people can hold high positions in the temple. Only the novices and practising monks need to be able to read. The interviewee had even embarked on a 600 km prostration pilgrimage to Mt Mutai over 108 days. He reached a state of “enlightenment” after reaching Mt Wutai. The abbot called him and wanted to use his prostration pilgrimage as a publicity stunt for his temple. He told the abbot that he was not going back. He knew he was going to be used and his beliefs were in conflict with that of the temple from which he came.
He met a monk who had followed him on his entire journey. Together, they found a village temple near Dali, Yunnan and decided to settle there. He states that he is not homophobic. In fact, he has sympathy towards LGBT because of how they are being treated in Chinese society. But being a religious person sworn to celibacy, homosexuality should not be an excuse or an outlet. He discovered that the monk he had set up a temple with in Yunnan was gay. Not only that, he had numerous partners who were also monks and they engaged in sexual activities inside the temple they had set up.
He returned to Beijing. He then got acquainted with a senior monk from Mt Wutai. He was advised to enter a temple at Liaoning to be formally ordained. That turned out to be terrible advice. It was a gay party. Not being accepted by society, these folks gravitated towards monasteries. He was molested in temple.
He worked at the “front desk” of the temple, meeting with devotees, government officials and visiting monks. Donations are only a small part of the income in a temple in China. There are numerous ways a temple can extract money from troubled devotees. Paper blessings for the living were charged 200 yuan per year. Tablets for the deceased cost 1000 yuan a year. Rituals cost 3,000 – 10,000 yuan per session. A week-long ceremony would cost 1 million yuan. China has an endless supply of superstitious and guilty conscious people.
Temples are set up like businesses. If a monk comes under an abbot, that abbot could build many branches all over China and groom monks under him to manage. Politicians could also build an estate with houses, schools, malls and temples. The temples could be a major source of income both for the monks and the politicians.
Opacity is the root of problems in Chinese temples. Temples in developed countries are required to make their accounts public, but not those in China. Keeping account opaque has the advantage of facilitating government officials dipping their hands into the coffers. Administrators are all appointed to be part of the circle.
The interviewee left monastic life after 5 years. The real practitioners will never enter an official monastery or temple. The Party controls all religious organisations in China because they are useful tools for brainwashing the populace