A $13,500 Unitree robot was ‘ordained’ at Seoul’s Jogyesa Temple

At about ten in the morning on Wednesday, in the courtyard of Daeungjeon Hall at Jogyesa, a 130-centimetre humanoid in brown robes pressed its palms together and bowed. A monk asked the figure whether it would devote itself to the holy Buddha.

The reply, in a recorded voice supplied by a temple manager, was “Yes, I will devote myself.”

The crowd cheered. The robot, a Unitree G1 that retails from around $13,500, received the dharma name Gabi, derived from Siddhartha Gautama and the Korean word jabi, meaning mercy.

By the afternoon it was gone. The robot had been loaned for the day by Unitree Robotics, and visitors who travelled to the temple hoping to meet the new monk found that the new monk was on a truck back to Hangzhou.

Its responses had been pre-recorded by Hong Min-suk, a manager at the Jogye Order. It had been remote-controlled throughout ...