[Anchor]

We looked into the Temple Stay project, which receives tens of billions of won in government budgets every year. It turns out that some facilities built and renovated with state funds have been shut down or are practically impossible to find.

Morning Zoom-In, Reporter Bae Yeo-un.

[Reporter]

This is the exclusive Temple Stay building located in a corner of Silleuksa Temple in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province.

The paper doors are torn, and the eaves are full of spiderwebs.

An unpleasant smell pierces the nose in the underground dining hall.

[Phew, it smells like mold....]

Though built with a total of 750 million won combining national and local government funds, the Temple Stay has not been operated for five years since 2021, which was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When asked for the reason,

[Silleuksa Temple Official: There was a water leak, and the ceiling is collapsing, so how can anyone have a meal there?]

However, the national funds received for the purpose of repairing the building amount to four times, totaling approximately 380 million won.

They are saying the facility remains closed because they could not fix the leaks despite receiving state funds for repairs multiple times.

[Silleuksa Temple Official: It is not like we can take on debt to repair and run it, right?]

Designation can be revoked if a Temple Stay is not held more than twice a month, but the competent authority stated that it would take action only after five years.

[Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Official: We think we need to finalize within this year whether to cancel its registration as an operating temple or have it resume operations.]

There are other places like this.

Banyasa Temple in Yeongdong, North Chungcheong Province, received 500 million won in subsidies under the pretext of a Temple Stay.

However, the newly built experience center is not visible within the temple grounds.

It appears only after crossing a stream and walking up a forest path for more than 10 minutes.

Without any signposts, it is not even easy to find.

The door is tightly locked, and looking through the window, construction protective materials remain unremoved just as they were left.

Checking the building registry shows it was completed in July of last year, but it is hard to find any traces of use.

The temple side stated that the space is used only when there are group participants.

[Banyasa Temple Official: I heard the frequency of use is not high. It is a bit problematic that a building constructed with national funds is not being utilized properly. We are looking for ways to make better use of it.]

Over the past 20 years, national funds poured into Temple Stays alone have exceeded 380 billion won.

It has been around 23 billion won annually over the past decade, and increased to 27 billion won this year.

(Video by Seol Min-hwan | Video Editing by Park Na-young | Design by Seo Seung-hyun | VJ by Kim Jun-ho)