The Monk Who Said No to TV for 34 Years Just Starred in SBS Variety

For decades, Monk Beopryun said no. No to the television variety offers, no to the entertainment networks, and no to every broadcasting team that came knocking at his door with a proposition. But this May, Korea's most revered Buddhist monk — the man millions turn to for life guidance — is finally stepping in front of the cameras on his own terms, and the country is not entirely sure it was ready for what he brought.

SBS's brand-new variety program Beopryun Road: Monk and Guests premieres on May 19, 2026, at 9 PM KST, marking what entertainment insiders have called one of the most unexpected announcements in recent Korean TV memory. Not because the concept is unfamiliar — road trip shows are a staple of Korean variety — but because Monk Beopryun himself is the one doing it.

Who Is Monk Beopryun, and Why Does His TV Debut Matter?

To understand why this show has created such a stir before a single episode has aired, it helps to know who Monk Beopryun is within Korean society. He is not simply a religious figure. He is the founder of the Jungto Society, a Buddhist organization with a significant domestic and international presence, and the creator of a long-running public practice called jeungmunjeuseol — an "immediate Q&A" format in which he answers questions from the audience on any topic, entirely without preparation and with a directness that regularly leaves participants visibly shaken.

His public sessions, whether held in large auditoriums or streamed online, draw enormous crowds across age groups and backgrounds. His YouTube presence has attracted millions of viewers who tune in precisely for the quality his format demands: genuine, unscripted responses to questions about relationships, money, work, death, meaning, and practically everything in between. The appeal is not spiritual mysticism but something closer to radical honesty — a willingness to say what most people avoid saying.

Beyond the Q&A sessions, Monk Beopryun founded JTS (Join Together Society), an international humanitarian aid organization that has been operating in India, Bangladesh, and other developing nations for over 30 years. His work there — building schools, providing medical care, and supporting communities facing extreme poverty — earned him the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2002, an honor often described as the Nobel Prize of Asia.

Despite all of this public presence, one line Monk Beopryun consistently held was the television variety line. Many networks tried. He declined all of them. Until now.

Thirty-Four Years of Indian Pilgrimage — Opened to the Camera

The context that makes Beopryun Road more than just another celebrity variety concept is what the monk is actually sharing: access to a journey he has kept private for thirty-four years. As part of his connection to India through JTS, Monk Beopryun has made an annual pilgrimage to the country's sacred Buddhist sites for decades. This pilgrimage — its routes, its rituals, its encounters, and its emotional weight — has never been captured on camera for public viewing.

That changes with this show. For the first time, viewers will accompany the monk through the India he has walked for over three decades: the Ganges River, remote temples, the school he helped build years ago in a rural village, and roads that stretch across terrain as varied as the people they meet along the way.

Joining him on this pilgrimage are five guests whose personalities collectively suggest a deliberately designed chaos: comedian and variety veteran Noh Hong-chul, actors Lee Sang-yoon and Lee Joo-bin, entertainer Lee Ki-taek, and Woo Chan of the group All Day Project.

Production staff describe the casting as intentional. Each of the five guests represents a different kind of question — different backgrounds, different anxieties, different ways of moving through the world. In a show built around the premise of honest answers, the questions matter as much as the monk.

The Q&A Moments Already Going Viral

If there is one element of Beopryun Road that has generated the loudest pre-air buzz, it is the jeungmunjeuseol segments captured in the two teasers released in late April and early May. Even in brief clips, the monk's responses have produced moments that are already circulating across Korean entertainment communities and social platforms.

Lee Joo-bin, the actress known for her composed public image, shared a personal concern with the monk during the trip — and received the instant response: "That's OCD." Actor Lee Sang-yoon, attempting a conversational opener, offered the common phrase "Knowledge is power" — only to hear the monk reply without hesitation: "Knowledge is sickness."

Woo Chan, the youngest member of the group, mentioned that he had recently become very interested in cars. In a show about finding your true self, this admission prompted a swift correction: "That's not interest. That's obsession." Comedian Noh Hong-chul, perhaps the most willing to test limits, asked the monk directly whether he should cash out his stock market and cryptocurrency investments at a certain return point. The monk's answer, delivered with no detectable hesitation: "Why are you asking me?"

The exchanges are funny in the way only uncomfortable truths can be — but they also land with a clarity that many viewers describe as genuinely useful. The monk is not performing wisdom for the camera. He appears to be doing precisely what he does in his public sessions, just in the middle of India with five celebrities instead of an auditorium.

Five Guests, Five Very Different Journeys

The guests of Beopryun Road bring a range of energies that the promotional materials are clearly designed to highlight as sources of both comedy and genuine tension.

Noh Hong-chul functions as the show's chaos agent and emotional barometer. A veteran of decades of Korean variety television, he brought his full self to the India trip — including the moment, already circulating online, where he completely collapsed asleep in the back of a vehicle after what production staff describe as one of the more demanding stretches of the journey. His constant refrain throughout the teasers — "Is this a trip or spiritual training?" — has become something of an unofficial motto for the show.

Lee Sang-yoon, an actor whose public persona leans thoughtful and composed, apparently adapted to the conditions of India in ways that surprised even his own colleagues. Lee Joo-bin cancelled personal travel plans to join the show, and promotional descriptions suggest she used the opportunity to be less guarded than her usual public appearances allow. Lee Ki-taek brought what the show characterizes as an unexpected comedic sensibility, and Woo Chan served as the group's youngest member and stabilizing presence — when not being told his interest in cars is actually an obsession.

The mix works, at least in the teasers, because the monk does not treat the guests differently based on their fame or their comedy-versus-drama backgrounds. He responds to what is said, not to who is saying it.

An Online Reaction That Was Already Building

Ahead of the May 19 premiere, Korean viewers had already formed strong opinions about what the show would be. Comments across entertainment platforms and social media reflect an enthusiasm unusual for a show that has not aired a single episode: "Monk Beopryun's wisdom bombs in real time — I'm watching every week," "This kind of variety has never existed before," and "India plus the monk is already enough for me."

A significant portion of the interest comes from the demographic that already follows Monk Beopryun's public lectures online — an audience that skews younger than many might expect and that has grown substantially through social media sharing of his Q&A sessions. For that audience, this is less a celebrity variety show than a long-form version of content they have already been watching for years.

The first teaser's viral moment — Noh Hong-chul greeting the monk with the informal "brother" (형님) and catching him completely off guard — offered a preview of what happens when one of Korea's most structured personalities meets one of its least filtered.

What to Expect on May 19

SBS has positioned Beopryun Road: Monk and Guests as a "healing variety" — a genre that signals content designed to offer viewers something beyond entertainment, including perspective, comfort, or the sensation of having sat with an important question for longer than usual. Based on what the teasers have shown, the label seems apt, though the show appears to arrive at healing through a slightly different route than the genre typically takes.

There is discomfort here. There is the Indian heat and difficult terrain. There is Noh Hong-chul asleep in a car. There is Lee Joo-bin learning that her worry has a clinical name. And there is a monk who has said no to television for his entire adult life finally saying yes — and bringing thirty-four years of accumulated knowledge about a country most of his guests have never properly encountered.

Beopryun Road: Monk and Guests premieres on SBS on May 19, 2026, at 9 PM KST. For anyone who has wondered what happens when Korea's most direct spiritual teacher sits down in the middle of India with five celebrities and no script — the answer, apparently, begins this Tuesday.