Six ways to spot a fake Buddhist monk after Hong Kong ex-actress Mary Jean Reimer on crusade to expose them strikes again
With actress-turned-lawyer striking again in London, forcing an impostor soliciting donations to disrobe on the spot, we reveal six ways you can tell a real Buddhist monk from a fake one
An actress-turned-lawyer who launched a crusade to expose fake monks has struck again. This time she confronted an impostor soliciting donations in London, who she cornered and forced to disrobe on the street. The man vowed to convert to Buddhism on the spot.
In 2015, Mary Jean Reimer accused Sik Chi-ding, the abbess of Ting Wai Monastery in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district, of pocketing millions of Hong Kong dollars in donations, and of sham marriages with two monks for residency purposes. The nun and a monk were later arrested on suspicion of engaging in a bogus marriage.
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A practising Buddhist who used to sit on the board of Ting Wai Monastery, Reimer was in London ahead of a meditation retreat she will attend in June in Hertfordshire, just north of the British capital. She ran into a Chinese man wearing a brown monk’s cassock soliciting donations in Tottenham in north London.
With a friend videoing her, Reimer stopped someone who was in the act of making a donation to the man, and asked him to produce his jiedie (a certificate of ordination as a Buddhist monk issued by the Chinese government). The man produced a piece of paper resembling an amulet instead. Then she asked him to follow her in reciting Buddhist incantations.
She threatened to call police and made the man give her his passport and disrobe on the spot. Imploring her to let him go, the man, surnamed Chen, eventually told her he would make amends and convert to Buddhism.
The video was posted in Buddhist Alert, a Facebook group Reimer set up in 2016 to encourage the public to expose Buddhist misdeeds. The video quickly spread online, prompting heated discussion. In one post, a user calling himself Mike, who runs a restaurant in Beijing, said he supported her move.