Three Buddhist monks to request special entry into Myanmar

The Social and Labor Affairs Committee of the Jogye Order, the nation‘s largest Buddhist sect, on Tuesday announced that it will request the Myanmar Embassy in Korea to issue special entry permits for three Korean monks on Thursday.

The permits will be for Ven. Jimong, the chairperson of the committee, along with Ven. Hyedo and Jongsu.

“We see that it is a religious person’s duty to go to the scene where people are suffering and are in sorrow,” an official of the committee under the Jogye Order said in a statement.

The statement added that the unraveling crisis in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar, has gone against Buddhist beliefs and that it hoped that the violations would stop.

“In Myanmar, the number of deaths, including the death of young children that are shot by guns, is rising uncontrollably,” the statement said. “We feel ashamed and miserable as practitioners to see what is happening in Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country.“

The committee under the Jogye Order said it decided to go to Myanmar and hold prayers together at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the country’s most sacred site, to stop the violence and murders that are happening in Myanmar after its military staged a coup on Feb. 1.

If the three monks are given a special entry permit, they will have to apply for a visa to enter Myanmar.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)