Buddhist Monks Ordered to Stop Scamming through ‘Rituals’

Buddhist monks in Vietnam have been ordered by the authorities to stop 'soul summoning' and 'bad karma eviction' ceremonies following an investigation which found these rituals to be a scam.

According to a state-run newspaper Lao Dong, thousands of worshippers have been paying the 18^th century Ba Vang pagoda in northern Quang Ninh province, US$45 - US$13,500 to have their bad karma vanquished.

A government body, The Committee for Religious Affairs issued a statement saying the ritual goes against Buddhist philosophy and violates Vietnam's law on religion and folk beliefs. "It has a negative impact on social order and security."

Thrice a month, the monks at the pagoda hold a two-day ceremony to 'summon wandering souls' and 'remove bad karma', and demand donations, supposedly representing good deeds, to help 'cure bad karma' and make up for presumed bad deeds in 'previous lives'. The Committee says such rituals have been going on for years. "But the practice has drawn unfavorable attention as the amounts demanded by the monks soared to the point where they began taking payments by bank transfers and installments." And this was followed by a public outrage when an inspirational speaker associated with the pagoda blamed a victim, who had been taken hostage and raped by five men for two days before she was killed on the eve of the Lunar New Year, for being gang raped. The speaker said the victim had committed evil acts in a past life in comments posted on the pagoda's website.

Moreover, the monks teach that homosexuality comes from bad karma and should be 'cured' by having people of the opposite sex spend time together.