Buddhist Community Upset Over ‘Cross-Covered’ Gift from Presidential Office

The Presidential Office sent a Lunar New Year gift to the Buddhist community wrapped in a box featuring images of churches and cathedrals. The Presidential Office visited the Buddhist community to apologize for the controversy. The picture shows the problematic wrapping paper. / Presidential Office

The Presidential Office sent a Lunar New Year gift to the Buddhist community wrapped in a box featuring images of churches and cathedrals. Following the controversy, Lee Kwan Seop, the Chief Presidential Secretary, personally visited the Jogye Order to apologize.

The Chief Secretary and Hwang Sang Moo, the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs, visited the Jogye Temple in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 1st, where they met with Jin Woo, the Chief Administrative Officer of the Jogye Order, and others.

An official from the Presidential Office confirmed this in a phone call with Newsis, a news agency in South Korea. They said, “We apologized to the Jogye Order, saying we’re very sorry,” and “We decided to return all gifts that haven’t arrived yet.”

The official met with reporters at the Presidential Office in Yongsan in the afternoon and clarified that the gift did not contain any intention to favor or reject any particular religion.

The Presidential Office announced through a press release that President Yoon Suk Yeol had sent Lunar New Year gifts.

The Presidential Office stated, “The gifts, which were sent to various sectors of society, including the families of Korean War veterans and those practicing sharing, consisted of traditional Korean foods such as a rice wine called Baekilju originating from Gongju(one province of South Korea), Yuja tea from Goheung, pine nuts from Gapyeong, and beef jerky from Hoengseong.”

The Presidential Office also stated, “For the Buddhist community, we prepared acacia honey from Nonsan, Yuja tea, pine nuts, and shiitake mushrooms from Yangyang.”

The gift immediately became controversial. It was revealed that the Yuja tea was in a box with a cathedral drawn on it, and the pine nuts were in a box with a church drawn on it. It was reported that Jin Woo, the Chief Administrative Officer of the Jogye Order, and other Buddhist community leaders received these gifts.

The card inside the gift also caused controversy. The card contained a prayer that read, “Thank you to our loving God the Father—Lord, who does not extinguish even the dying lamp. Let us become one with faith and love according to your word. Amen.”

The Presidential Office clarified that leprosy patients from Sorok Island created the drawings on the gift box and the words on the card. They explained, “We introduced the artwork of the inpatients of the National Sorokdo Hospital to overcome our society’s prejudice against leprosy patients and support them.” They added that they chose the drawings by the leprosy patients for the gift packaging to show their support for those who have suffered from disease and prejudice and to express their hope for Sorok Island to become an island of healing.