Seoul, May 1 (IANS) Admission fees for 65 Buddhist temples affiliated with the Jogye Order, South Korea's largest Buddhist sect, around the country will be scrapped starting this week, a joint statement said on Monday.

The free admission will begin on Thursday, when a revised law requiring the state to make up for the loss of fees comes into force, the statement issued by the Cultural Heritage Administration and the Jogye Order said.

Visitors currently are required to pay admission fees ranging from 1,000 won ($0.7) to 5,000 won per person when they enter Buddhist temples with Korean cultural properties, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Under the revised Cultural Heritage Protection Act, owners or managers of state-designated cultural properties can receive the costs for preserving or managing the properties from the central government or municipalities if they do not charge the costs as admission fees from visitors.

A total of 41.9 billion won was allocated by the central government for this purpose.

But temples that own or manage cultural properties designated by cities or provinces will continue to charge admission fees.

Temple admission fees were originally included in admission fees for national parks as many Buddhist temples are situated in scenic mountains designated as national parks.

Since temples have separately collected admission fees even after the fees charged to enter national parks were scrapped in January 2007, the temple admission fees have been a long-debated issue.

Even though temples claim the measure is inevitable to properly preserve and manage state-designated cultural assets in their compounds, hikers and climbers who merely pass through the temples to enter the mountain have protested the charging.

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