Map without Buddhist temples sparks anger

By John Choi, Seoul

A newly issued map of Korea’s Jeju island, which does not indicate Buddhist temples although Christian churches are marked out, has sparked the anger of Buddhists.

The Jeju Special Self-governing Province began distributing 250,000 copies of its new map from Sept. 14. The map shows the new addressing system which comes into effect in 2012.

However, it does not show Buddhist temples while Catholic and Protestant churches are listed.

“This is an obvious discrimination against Buddhism,” Park Jong-chan, coordinator of the Religious Peace Committee of Jogye Order, the country’s largest Buddhist denomination, told ucanews.com.

“Two years ago, the same thing occurred and it sparked a Buddhist rally. The Jeju government should have been careful about this.”

In 2008, a Seoul transport information system map omitted all Buddhist temples on a map of the city but included even small Protestant churches.

This led some 200,000 Buddhists to hold demonstrations in protest.

“We will ask the Jeju government to give a full account of the matter and correct the map,” said Park.

A Jeju government official told ucanews.com yesterday: “We gave information on 150 temples to the map manufacturer but they made a mistake in omitting the temples. We will correct the mistake when printing the next map.”

According to 2005 South Korean government statistics, just under half of the population then expressed no religious preference. Of the rest, 29.2 percent of the population was Christian and 22.8 percent Buddhist.