YANGYANG, South Korea - In a picturesque Buddhist temple, young South Korean men and women walk hand-in-hand, one wearing a blindfold and the other describing the path ahead as they walk towards a gate where legend tells them dreams come true.
Observed by a monk, the trust-building walk is part of a two-day Buddhist matchmaking retreat at Naksansa, a hilltop temple founded in 671 CE during the Silla Dynasty on South Korea’s northeastern coast in what is now Yangyang County.
The Korean Buddhist Foundation for Social Welfare launched its blind date programme in 2023 to help tackle the country’s low birthrate, the world's lowest, by bringing young singles together. Interest in the programme has grown and this round drew a record 4,225 applicants for just 20 spots, the foundation said.
“Honestly, they say the birthrate is falling and more people are choosing not to marry, but everyone around me really does get married, everyone has a partner, and they date just fine," Choi Ye-ri, a 30-year-old first-time participant, told Reuters.
"And since this is a programme, I figured more decent guys who were selected would be coming here, so that’s why I came," she said. The government expects South Korea's population of 51.8 million to shrink by almost a third by 2072, but there are hopes the country's demographic crisis might be starting to ease after successive increases in the birth rate over the past two years. The organisers behind the blind date weekend see their work as more than matchmaking.
“I hope this journey becomes a time to reflect on the low birthrate issue and to think about alternatives for our future,” Venerable Doryun, head of the Korean Buddhist Foundation for Social Welfare, told the participants.
South Korea’s total fertility rate, the average number of babies a woman is expected to have, stood at 0.80 in 2025, up from 0.75 in 2024, marking a second straight year of increase, according to government data.
Unlike conventional blind dates that might take place on a single evening, the retreat's weekend format helps draw participants closer through a variety of shared activities. Dressed in Korean temple attire, they are randomly paired by drawing numbered sticks or matching each other’s belongings, and get to know each other better over a group tea or strolls through the woods. Later, some couples join a yoga class by the beach and take part in one-on-one rotation dates.
“My impression is that getting to know people in a temple setting is a completely new experience for me, which feels really fresh, and I think it allows you to get to know someone more seriously,” participant Kim Do-yeon said.
