Little known Shaolin Temple and a million-dollar business empire

Shaolin Temple, such as "Shaolin Group" with 5 subsidiaries named Shaolin Temple is: Property Management Company, Hoan Hy Dia Company, Cultural Dissemination Company, Real Development Company Products and Pharmaceutical Company. These 5 companies are considered "5 measures of protection".

Shaolin Temple (Shaolin Temple) is a temple at Mount Tung Mountain in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, China. The pagoda has long been famous thanks to the relationship between Buddhism and martial arts. As the cradle of Chinese Zen Buddhism, this is said to be the most famous Buddhist base for the West.

However, perhaps not many people know that Shaolin Self is a true business empire. The temple is like "Shaolin Group" with 5 subsidiaries named Thieu Lam Tu: Asset Management Company, Hoan Hy Dia Company, Cultural Dissemination Company, Food Development Company and Pharmaceutical Company. These 5 companies are considered "5 legal means to make money".

The business has grown so much in 2013, under the leadership of abbot Thich Vinh Tin, Shaolin Tu has filed an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. However, the temple's profile was rejected due to concerns about excessive commercialization issues that would lose the temple's image.

The "Fa to make money"

In a speech in 2011, the abbot at the time, Thich Vinh Tin, revealed that the pagoda has about 40 foreign subsidiaries with the aim of spreading martial arts inspired by Buddhism. bridge.

"We currently operate more than 40 companies in many cities around the world, like Berlin and London."

After the explosion of Shaolin Temple in 1982, the village surrounding the temple called Shaolin Village attracted many students from all over the world to apply for it. Many people often say that the village seems to have become a true "Kungfu furnace".

Along with that, the dojo was also opened to meet the learning needs of the disciples. It is estimated that up to 50 martial arts schools are opened every year with 50,000 students studying Shaolin martial arts.

In particular, there are a lot of "luxury disciples" massively seeking their way to the mountain, ready to spend $ 800 a month to learn martial arts and to experience life in Shaolin Temple. They are chief executives in "million-dollar" businesses, foreign entrepreneurs and experts in many fields.

The pagoda also built a private martial arts school. The cost for a year of study here is about 7,000 to 12,000 USD (about 142 million to 250 million VND).

Shaolin also sent monks to countries around the world to teach and propagate Shaolin kung fu and Buddhism. Currently Shaolin itself has branches in London (England), Berlin (Germany), Budapest (Hungary), Vienna (Austria) ...

Thieu Lam Pagoda is also involved in activities of several other industries. For example, cinema. Currently, the temple owns a number of companies operating under the authority such as Henan Shaolin Film Company, a pharmaceutical company and an online souvenir shop, allowing customers from all over the world to place buy Shaolin products. The product is very diverse: from chopsticks, tea, to books "martial arts recipes" Shaolin ...

Not only that, In 2003, Abbot Thich Vinh Tin authorized a company to create a game called "Shaolin Legend" (Shaolin Legend).

Another stable source of Thieu Lam Pagoda is the entrance ticket to visit the temple. Visitors who want to enjoy Shaolin Temple must "hook a purse" to buy a ticket to the gate for 100 yuan (about 16 USD), an expense that not everyone can afford to come, especially people often.

These fees are attributed to the management and management of Shaolin Songshan Cultural Tourism Company, which is managed and managed by the Shaolin Temple Management Board. According to estimates, thousands of tourists come here every day, but for a long time, Tung Son Company has never announced the total number of tourists and annual revenue. However, experts say, this revenue is about USD 20 million per year.

Monk CEO

The man with great merit of building the business empire for Shaolin itself is Thich Vinh Tin - the first Chinese monk with a master's degree in business administration. When I first came to the position of the staff, witnessing the devastation of Shaolin Temple, since entering the pagoda, Monk Thich Vinh Tin has advocated economic development, based on economic potential to show off the prestige of Shaolin Self. After more than 10 years of pursuing the business road, Thich Vinh Tin has brought Shaolin Self to the golden peak, the famous reputation.

Monk Thich Vinh Tin (middle).

He affirmed that the businesses of the pagoda did not take profit motive as a motivation but mainly wanted to spread the lack of Lam culture to the world.

There was great merit to build the huge Shaolin Self-trading empire, but in 2015, Monk Thich Vinh Tin was exposed to scandals with illegitimate children and embezzled the fund. Though the pagoda denied the above information, since then, the monk Thich Vinh Tin has appeared less publicly.

Phuong Linh