Funded with Taxes, Closed to Public: 'Hot Spot' Cafe Registered Under Private Name

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While leaving facilities built with taxpayer money neglected is a problem, some places push temple stays to the sidelines while generating profit through cafes registered under private names.

Reporter Noh Yujin investigated the scene.

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The temple stay experience center at Jingwansa Temple in Seoul.

This is a building constructed with a total of 3.1 billion won in government subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and Eunpyeong District.

However, the first floor, crowded with customers even on weekdays, is operating as a cafe.

[Cafe Staff: (Could we perhaps meet the owner?) Our representative is a Buddhist monk.]

The business registration of the cafe is under the name of the former chief monk, not a religious corporation or the representative of Jingwansa Temple.

An individual is running a profit-making business in a building built with tax money.

The business plan initially submitted specified that the first floor would house an exhibition and promotion hall, a temple food experience center, and a tourist information center for foreigners.

However, it has completely deviated from the plan into a cafe selling items such as coffee.

Jingwansa Temple maintains that there is no problem, stating that the Seoul Metropolitan Government approved it and that the profits are used for temple stay operating expenses and other costs.

[Jingwansa Temple Official: When profits are generated there, those profits are used as operating expenses. That is the financial resource we used, and that is how we received business approval.]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government, the authority granting approval, also takes the stance that it is no big deal.

[Seoul Metropolitan Government Official: Details of the business progress can change during the design process, and we did not view it as a major change.]

However, experts hold a different view.

[Song Jin-ho / Visiting Research Fellow, Korea Civil Budget Center: Just concluding that the profits generated from the cafe are simply being used for the temple stay and are being well-spent is not a legitimate procedure.]

Although Seoul city guidelines also require clear regulations on whether profits are generated and who they belong to, there is no mention of profits in any of the subsidy decision documents.

There is neither a way to verify whether the profits are being used for the temple stay nor any basis to sanction them.

This contrasts sharply with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism explicitly specifying conditions to use subsidies strictly in accordance with the purpose of operating temple stays.

Furthermore, Jingwansa Temple receives separate temple stay operation support funds every year from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The operation support funds received last year alone amounted to approximately 100 million won.

It is also problematic that while receiving budget support as allocated, the temple stay itself is put on the back burner.

Last month, there was not a single day for programs open to the general public.

[Jingwansa Temple Stay Official: (Are you not holding it in July?) In July, we had work... we had a schedule, so August 5th.]

Even then, it opens only once a month.

The rule requiring single-day programs to be held at least four times a month is rendered meaningless.

Thirteen out of the 159 government-supported temple stay temples nationwide make it difficult even to make reservations on their official websites.

[Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Official: If operations do not normalize, we are seriously considering measures beyond existing evaluations, such as excluding them from designated temples.]

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated that it will launch an on-site inspection.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
Reported by Seol Min-hwan | Video by Lee Hong-myung | Graphics by Kim Min-young | VJ by Kim Jun-ho
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.