Temple's hefty salaries raise eyebrows

A Buddhist temple in Zhuzhou city, in Central China's Hunan province, caught public attention lately for recruiting sales staff with monthly salaries as high as 10,000 yuan ($1,574), a local newspaper reported on May 30.

According to the report by CZT Today, Shanglin Temple, on Jiulang Mountain in Zhuzhou's Shifeng district, is looking for sales staff to sell apartments for the elderly, and memorial tablets for the deceased.

Each salesperson will have a basic monthly salary of 850 yuan and a commission depending on performance. The monthly income of a salesperson can be as high as 10,000 yuan, the report quoted a female employee as saying.

In addition, sales trainees can be promoted to sales manager or publicity director if they achieve outstanding sales figures, she added.

Hu Yingqun, deputy director of Shifeng district's publicity department, said that the monks' recruitment policies are a "private matter".