South Korean singles seek dream match at Buddhist Temple Retreat

At a scenic Buddhist temple on South Korea's coast, young singles can be seen walking in pairs, one blindfolded and guided by the other, making their way towards a gate said to grant wishes to those who pass through it together.

At a scenic Buddhist temple on South Korea’s coast, young singles can be seen walking in pairs, one blindfolded and guided by the other, making their way towards a gate said to grant wishes to those who pass through it together.
A monk watches over the exercise, which forms part of a two-day matchmaking retreat held at Naksansa, a temple perched on a hill in Yangyang County that dates back to 671 CE, during the Silla Dynasty. The event is organized by the Korean Buddhist Foundation for Social Welfare, which started the initiative in 2023 as a way to bring young singles together and address South Korea’s fertility rate, the lowest in the world. This year’s edition attracted its largest pool of applicants yet, with more than 4,000 people competing for just 20 available spots.
Choi Ye-ri, a 30-year-old attending for the first time, told Reuters that despite talk of falling marriage and birth rates, most people she knows are married or in relationships, and that she joined the retreat expecting a more curated group of serious candidates.
Authorities project that South Korea’s population, currently just under 52 million, could fall by nearly a third by 2072. However, there is a cautious optimism that the trend may be reversing, with birth rates climbing for two consecutive years. Venerable Doryun, who heads the organizing foundation, told attendees he hoped the retreat would prompt reflection on the birthrate issue and encourage thinking about long-term solutions.
Government figures show South Korea’s fertility rate rose slightly to 0.80 in 2025, up from 0.75 the year before.
Unlike a typical one-off blind date, the retreat spans a full weekend, giving participants more time to bond through shared experiences. Wearing traditional temple clothing, attendees are paired off at random, either by drawing sticks or matching belongings, before spending time together over tea and walks through the surrounding forest. Some pairs later join a beachside yoga session and go through a series of one-on-one dates.
Participant Kim Do-yeon said meeting people in a temple environment felt like a completely new experience for her, one that she found refreshing and more conducive to getting to know someone on a deeper level.