In China, Dharma Confronts the Dollar

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In the mid-1990s, the local authorities decided to resurrect the Shuanglin Temple as part of a plan to promote tourism in Yiwu, which is more famous for being the site of the world's largest wholesale mall than for ancient Chinese temples. Shuanglin Temple was originally built near Yiwu in 520 AD by Buddhist monks from India.

In 1958, during the Great Leap Forward, the local people's commune destroyed the temple when they built a water reservoir around it. After the launch of economic reforms in the early 1980s, the government began to allow greater religious freedom in China, and permitted the reconstruction of temples. Local Buddhist practitioners wholeheartedly embraced the local authorities' plan and donated more than $5.3 million to rebuild Shuanglin Temple.

Monks File Complaint

However in Yiwu's case the local government appeared to be more interested in using the temple to fill its own coffers than in rebuilding a site for Buddhists to worship. Halfway through the construction of the temple, the government sold the temple for $4.5 million to a local real estate developer planning to develop the Yiwu Shuanglin Tourism & Vacation Scenic Area.

On July 4, six Buddhist monks last month filed a complaint against the head of local religious affairs bureau, charging, "The new Shuanglin Temple was built from donations from the city's Buddhists, not the government. The government authorities have no right to sell the temple," the complaint stated.

The Yiwu Religious Affairs Bureau declined to comment and referred requests for comment to the local propaganda bureau, which also declined to discuss the issue. Shuanglin Temple accountant Liu Tiyuan says the local government forced the businessman to sell back his stake in the temple last year due to a "change in government policy."

There is growing trepidation among academics and Buddhist clergy that local authorities generally are focusing too much of the temples' energy on making money as opposed to alleviating Buddhist followers' sufferings. "The money can be very dangerous for Buddhism development. Money can bring corruption and conflict," points out Xue Yu, professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong's Cultural & Religious Studies Dept., who is researching Buddhism in modern China.

Chi-Chu Tschang contributed this article to BusinessWeek Online from Beijing.