Venerable Deoksan performs a Michael Jackson-inspired dance move at Jajaeam Temple in Gyeonggi on May 22. [JOONGANG ILBO]
A shaved head topped with a gleaming black fedora. A black armband on the right arm, a black glove on the right hand. One hand grips the hat, the other rests on the hip — and then the hips begin to thrust, forward and back, in a note-perfect recreation of Michael Jackson's “Billie Jean” routine. He is Venerable Deoksan, a head monk of Jajeam Temple on Mount Soyo in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi.
Online, he is known as the “G-Dragon monk” — a nickname he earned after a video of him dancing to the K-pop star's moves at a Buddhist expo in April went viral. Most recently, footage of him performing Michael Jackson's choreography at the Lotus Lantern Festival held by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism on May 16 and 17 drew a fresh buzz.
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When he sat down for an interview at Jajeam Temple on May 22, two days before Buddha's Birthday, Deoksan explained his unlikely hobby simply: “I want to communicate with young people,” he said. “Most of the people at temples are older, and it is hard to see young faces. I wanted to reach out to them and connect, so I thought about what they enjoy — and I started dancing.”
