Temples barred from selling market shares
Source: Agencies |
October 29, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA is telling Buddhist temples popular with tourists: Don't let money be your mantra.
Authorities announced a ban last week on temples selling shares to investors after leaders of several popular temples planned to pursue stock market listings for them as commercial entities.
Even the Shaolin Temple of kung fu movie fame was once rumored to be planning a stock market debut - leading critics to slam such plans as a step too far in China's already unrestrained commercial culture.
"Everywhere in China now is about developing the economy," complained Beijing resident Fu Runxing, a 40-year-old accountant who said he recently went to a temple where incense was priced at 300 yuan (US$50) a stick.
"It's too excessive. It's looting," she said.
Centuries-old Buddhist pilgrimage sites such as Wutai Mountain in Shanxi Province, Putuo Mountain in Zhejiang and Jiuhua Mountain in Anhui all were moving toward listings on stock markets in recent months to finance expansion, according to state media.
The government's religious affairs office called on local authorities to ban profiteering related to religious activity and told them not to allow religious venues to be run as business ventures or listed as corporate assets.
Companies that manage temple sites may be able to bypass the prohibition on listing shares simply by excluding the temples themselves from their lists of assets. A Buddhist site at Emei Mountain in Sichuan already has been on the Shenzhen stock exchange since 1997 but its listed assets include a hotel, cable car company and ticket booths - not the temples, which date back several hundred years.
Shanghai lawyer Wang Yun said the new prohibition wouldn't likely affect Emei, but might make additional companies think twice before listing.
The ban on profiteering from religious activity is "just a reflection of the terrible reality of the over-commercialization in recent years of temples and other places," the Southern Metropolis Daily said in a recent editorial. "People who have been to famous religious places should be familiar with expensive ticket prices and donations for all kinds of things."
Chinese entities from nature parks to religious sites are increasingly turning to commercial activities to pay expenses as government support dwindles in a society with little charitable giving.
Temples face heavy costs to maintain centuries-old buildings and gardens.
Authorities announced a ban last week on temples selling shares to investors after leaders of several popular temples planned to pursue stock market listings for them as commercial entities.
Even the Shaolin Temple of kung fu movie fame was once rumored to be planning a stock market debut - leading critics to slam such plans as a step too far in China's already unrestrained commercial culture.
"Everywhere in China now is about developing the economy," complained Beijing resident Fu Runxing, a 40-year-old accountant who said he recently went to a temple where incense was priced at 300 yuan (US$50) a stick.
"It's too excessive. It's looting," she said.
Centuries-old Buddhist pilgrimage sites such as Wutai Mountain in Shanxi Province, Putuo Mountain in Zhejiang and Jiuhua Mountain in Anhui all were moving toward listings on stock markets in recent months to finance expansion, according to state media.
The government's religious affairs office called on local authorities to ban profiteering related to religious activity and told them not to allow religious venues to be run as business ventures or listed as corporate assets.
Companies that manage temple sites may be able to bypass the prohibition on listing shares simply by excluding the temples themselves from their lists of assets. A Buddhist site at Emei Mountain in Sichuan already has been on the Shenzhen stock exchange since 1997 but its listed assets include a hotel, cable car company and ticket booths - not the temples, which date back several hundred years.
Shanghai lawyer Wang Yun said the new prohibition wouldn't likely affect Emei, but might make additional companies think twice before listing.
The ban on profiteering from religious activity is "just a reflection of the terrible reality of the over-commercialization in recent years of temples and other places," the Southern Metropolis Daily said in a recent editorial. "People who have been to famous religious places should be familiar with expensive ticket prices and donations for all kinds of things."
Chinese entities from nature parks to religious sites are increasingly turning to commercial activities to pay expenses as government support dwindles in a society with little charitable giving.
Temples face heavy costs to maintain centuries-old buildings and gardens.
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