The Shaolin temple, perhaps best known as a place where a monk called Grasshopper and a shaven-headed David Carradine practised martial arts moves in the 1970s TV show Kung Fu, is at the centre of a scandal after sex and fraud accusations against its commercially minded abbot.
Shi Yongxin, one of China’s most famous clerics and the “CEO abbot” of the legendary Shaolin temple, is being investigated over claims he fathered children, kept lovers, drove luxury cars and embezzled funds.
Online accusations said Master Shi, who heads the temple in Henan province, was kicked out of Shaolin back in the 1980s after plundering cultural relics and organising a mafia-type gang. The police have launched an official investigation.
“Although he became a monk at 14, he has a wife. He loves beef instead of vegetables, and drives luxury cars such as Land Rovers and Audi A8s. When he is travelling, he stays in five-star hotels,” one woman surnamed Wang wrote on her Weibo account. She said she was the ex-girlfriend of the 54-year-old abbot’s son.
The monastery has denied the claims, accusing anti-Zen Buddhists of spreading lies.
“We hope the broad masses will can respect the law, respect the reputation of others and uphold the fair and just legal social environment,” the statement said.
As well as being abbot of the Shaolin temple, Master Shi is a deputy to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which advises the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature.
He is being probed by the religious affairs bureau in Henan over claims that he routinely ate meat despite being a professed vegetarian.
“Our bureau takes this extremely seriously and will swiftly clarify the situation,” ran a statement on the bureau’s website.
Mr Shi has come in for regular criticism over his commercial interests and his efforts to run the temple and its famed kung fu fighting monks like a business.
The temple attracts thousands of tourists every year to see where the five fighting styles of the Shaolin warrior – Tiger, Leopard, Snake, Dragon and Crane – were first developed.
According to people who have stayed in temples, life can certainly be fairly comfortable.
One man who gave his name as Ge Wu told The Irish Times that he went to Wutaishan in Shan'xi province a few weeks ago because he was out of job. During his stay he did part-time work in the temple kitchen and had "a great life without worrying about food or money".
“Lots of money is donated to the temple during the event called the ‘vegetarian meal for thousand people’.
"People always give you money whenever they come to visit the temple. Life here is good. One abbot told me that he might even bring me to Singapore when he goes there or send me to Hong Kong to study for some years and then I can be in charge of a temple," said Mr Ge.
A separate report in the Southern Weekly showed that fake monks were becoming a major problem throughout the country.
A local lawyer told the Global Times that he had been threatened by monks after he exposed fake Buddhists at a monastery in Zhejiang province, which was earning hundreds of thousands of euro a year in donations.
"The monks came from Henan Province. They neither had religious or government certificates nor were registered by the local Buddhist association and religious affairs department," said the lawyer, who gave his name as Qiang Ming.
