Located at the foot of Tanzhe Mountain in Mentougou district, Tanzhe Temple is one of the well known Buddhist temples in Beijing. [Photo/China.org.cn]

Two buddhist temples in Beijing－Tanzhe Temple and Jietai Temple－that have been involved in a listed company since 1998, were expected to return to their religious roles on June 30. However, the date set by the local authorities did not see the listed company terminating its contracted operations with management of the temples' tourism activities. Beijing News commented on Tuesday:

The two well-known Buddhist temples in Beijing should have stayed true to their religious purpose. Instead, to capitalize on their appeal to tourists, they were enlisted as resources of a listed cultural operation company about 20 years ago. This has severely violated their spiritual nature.

The two temples are meant to be places where people can clean their souls; instead they have become vehicles with which to chase money.

The religious temples packaged for the stock market are seeking to profit from those who have a nobler purpose, and have thus perverted their raison d'etre.

The nature of private companies is to put "money first". So there is always the need to legislate their activities so financial gain does not come at a cost to society.

This diverting of the temples from their true role should remind us that not every organization can enter the market, and all market entities must adhered to the bottom line of a healthy society.