Rival Buddhist Monks Brawl in South Korea

Monks brandished sticks and smashed collapsible metal chairs on the shaved heads of rival monks Tuesday in a leadership dispute within South Korea’s largest Buddhist order. At least 10 monks and laypeople were injured.

The clash was the latest violent eruption in a long-running feud between supporters of the Chogye order’s current administration and dissidents known as the Purification Reform Conference.

Witnesses said the fracas erupted after the dissidents gathered Tuesday morning to take over the administration of the Chogye Temple after a court in the capital upheld their claim to the leadership.

They were met by about 200 bodyguards brandishing metal pipes, baseball bats and fire extinguishers. Hundreds of monks who back the current leadership were holed up in the temple’s administrative building.

Monks traded kicks and punches. They later grabbed anything in their reach and hurled it at their opponents.

“Kill them!” one dissident monk shouted as he and his colleagues were attacked. At least two monks who had been bloodied were dragged off by rival monks.

In a nearby six-lane street, hundreds of monks faced off with columns of riot police between them.

The 30-minute fight ended only after hundreds of riot police armed with clubs and shields forcibly separated the two groups.

Rival factions of Chogye have fought repeatedly in recent years over control of the order. The victors control an annual budget in the millions of dollars, oversee millions’ worth of property and appoint 1,700 monks to various duties.

Police said another wave of violent clashes between rival monks appeared inevitable.

The Chogye order, which claims a membership of 8 million, emphasizes the practice of Zen meditation.