Templestay
South Korean Buddhist temple programs
Templestay (Korean: 템플스테이) is a cultural program offered in numerous South Korean Buddhist temples. Templestay allows participants to experience the life of Buddhist practitioners and learn the various aspects of Korean Buddhist culture and history through stories told by monks. The Templestay program was first proposed by Professor MooHyung Chung and has been operating since the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Origin
Templestay is an experiential program in Korean Buddhism initiated by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism at the onset of the 2002 World Cup. During its 1,700 years of history, Korean Buddhism has preserved and passed down Ganhwa Seon practice, a kind of Seon (Zen) meditation. Every year during the retreat seasons of summer and winter, about 2,500 monastics enter a 100-day meditation retreat in one of the 100 temples nationwide. This is a unique Korean tradition in the sphere of Mahayana Buddhism.
This tradition has influenced the architectural layout of temples and monastic life over the years, and one can attain inner calm and peace of mind and body at any of these temples. In their effort to transform the 2002 World Cup into a cultural opportunity, the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism decided to open their temple gates during the games and allowed both Koreans and non-Koreans to stay in one of their mountain temples.
As a result, in the 30 days the World Cup lasted (May 31, 2002 to June 30), 1,000 foreigners and 10,000 Koreans experienced the Templestay program.
“Templestay” enters the record as south Korean Buddhist temple programs. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Templestay, South and Korean can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Templestay” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Templestay, South and Korean provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12621139. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Templestay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.