Finding partners in a temple, instead of a club

“I am in Temple” is an event organized to bring in young people in their 20s and 30s looking for partners. The name was based on a famous TV show, “I am Solo,” which gathered single men and women looking for love. “I am in Temple” held its first season in November last year and garnered attention. Its season 5, which was held at Naksansa Temple on August 9 and 10, had 1,501 applications for 20 available spots, with 70.1 men and 77.3 women each competing for one spot.

The origin of “I am in Temple” is “Meetup Temple Stay,” which started in 2013. “We added an element of meeting partners to our temple stay program. However, it was more focused on temple stay, rather than meeting partners, which led to a few applicants,” said Monk Myojang. Due to the lack of applicants, employees participated instead in the early days.

“Meetup Temple Stay,” which hasn’t been very popular, has changed 180 degrees since Monk Myojang became the representative director in August last year. “It is a very good program but wasn’t effectively operated due to old customs and ideas,” said the monk. “As we resumed the program, which had been temporarily suspended due to COVID-19, we wanted to transform it to meet the needs of young people.”

The recent season of “I am in Temple” held at Naksansa Temple produced six couples out of 20 applicants. How were the applicants selected in a competition of over 70 people seeking one spot? “We select applicants based on how genuine they are in terms of looking for partners,” said Monk Myojang. “Applicants are not asked to reveal their religion, and they are not selected based on how they look or what they do.”


Chin-Ku Lee sys1201@donga.com