[Photo] Kim Seon-gap, Mayor of Gwangjin-gu, Visits Religious Facilities on Buddha's Birthday

District Mayor Kim's On-site Visits to Film Company, Giwonjeongsa, and Yongamsa Temples on the 18th... Reducing Dharma Assemblies at Temples to Prevent Local Infection Spread

Kim Seon-gap, Mayor of Gwangjin District, is visiting Giwonjeongsa Temple and having a conversation with monks and other related personnel.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Kim Seon-gap, Mayor of Gwangjin District, visited local temples including Yeonghwa Temple, Giwon Temple, and Yongam Temple on the 18th in celebration of the upcoming Buddha’s Birthday.

This visit was arranged to express gratitude to the Buddhist community for actively cooperating with quarantine measures by scaling down the annual Buddha’s Birthday events due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

On this day, Mayor Kim toured the temple facilities and took time to listen to the difficulties and suggestions from the field.

Also, anticipating an increase in temple visits for Buddha’s Birthday, he checked the quarantine management status as well.

Local temples plan to simplify the Dharma assemblies on Buddha’s Birthday itself or limit visitors by time slots to welcome the devotees.

In addition, they will thoroughly inspect compliance with quarantine rules such as mask-wearing, visitor log registration, and prohibition of food consumption inside the temples for all visitors.

Kim Seon-gap, Mayor of Gwangjin District, said, “Since the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, I have directly visited various religious facilities and requested religious leaders to comply with quarantine rules through consultations. Thanks to their active participation, we were able to establish a meticulous quarantine system.” He added, “Buddha’s Birthday is the most important commemorative day for the Buddhist community, but considering the current situation, I am grateful that they decided to scale down the events.”

Since the early days of COVID-19 until now, Gwangjin District has supported religious facilities with a total of about 450,000 masks and provided quarantine support funds of 1 million KRW per facility.

Furthermore, as part of this year’s crisis recovery disaster relief fund, it plans to support quarantine supplies worth 500,000 to 1,000,000 KRW per facility.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.