For one prominent Buddhist monk in Taiwan, life in the temple wasn’t all meditation, prayer, and self-sacrifice.
Footage has been published online showing 29-year-old Master Kai Hung cavorting in ways not typically associated with one who has donned the monk’s robe. In one clip, Kai Hung is seen tumbling around naked with another nude man in a bed and smoking meth. In another, he rambles, obviously stoned out of his mind, to the camera, babbling incoherently about how much he loves his “husband.”
The shocking footage was published on Tuesday morning by Taiwan news outlet Mirror Media. Later that day, police arrived at the Chongfo Temple in Miaoli county where Kai Hung was residing. According to a report from Liberty Times, other monks tried to prevent officers from entering the temple, talking loudly to give him a chance to hide.
However, Kai Hung was eventually discovered hiding out inside of a room that also contained 19 grams of amphetamine tablets, smoking pipes, aphrodisiacs, anal relaxants, condoms, and a bottle of holy water which was filled with lube. Police also found a pair of USB flash drives which contained over 200 GB of pornographic material including photos of nude men and gay sex videos, some of which were homemade and starred Kai Hung himself.
Afterward, Kai Hung was arrested and charged with drug crimes. He was later released on NT$100,000 ($3,200) bail.
It turns out that Kai Hung had once been considered a bright and devout disciple with much promise, holding the position of secretary-general at the Chinese Young Buddhist Association. However, following the death of his master, Kai Hung’s behavior took a turn for the impious. While residing at another temple in the county, Tongshan Temple, he is said to have lured other monks back to his room with drugs before seducing them into sex.
Kai Hung’s scandalous behavior got him kicked out Tongshan Temple back in September. He was then welcomed to Chongfo Temple where he is reported to have continued to break all the monastic vows in the book, resulting in him being expelled from the Buddhist youth association.
For his part, Kai Hung has denied any wrongdoing, telling police that while he did drugs, he never gave them to anyone else and that the videos had been relased as part of a nasty smear campaign against him by those at his former temple.
