A gymnast and influencer has been fiercely slammed online after she filmed a video of herself climbing and dancing on a religious shrine in Japan.

María del Mar Pérez Banus, who is originally from Chile but now lives in the US, faced an onslaught of criticism after she posted a clip that showed her participating in a popular dance trend while visiting a Shinto shrine.

The social media star was seen hanging off a torii, which is a gate marking the entrance to a Shinto shrine, as she moved her feet along to the song Cha Cha Slide.

While she has since deleted the video from her account, it was re-shared to X, formerly Twitter, by someone who goes by MasaNews3, where it went viral, gaining more than 33 million views.

And it sparked immense backlash for Maria, as one person branded her as a ‘stupid attention seeker,’ and another called her ‘extremely disrespectful.’ 

A gymnast and influencer has been fiercely slammed online after she filmed a video of herself climbing and dancing on a religious Japanese shrine

‘What stupidity is this?! If one can’t respect another country’s culture, they have no business going there,’ one person wrote. 

‘I wonder if people were always like this or if social media has rotted our brains so badly that we prioritize a viral video over basic human decency,’ wondered someone else.

‘It should go without saying but please don’t use sacred objects as gym equipment while visiting Japan.’

‘Using someone else’s possibly fragile stuff without permission just to show off her muscles is beyond selfish,’ added another user.

‘She’ll be swinging from the chandeliers at Versailles next.’

‘This is not funny. It’s extremely disrespectful,’ a different user scathed.

‘What an embarrassment,’ read a fifth comment.

A sixth said, ‘Climbing sacred monuments for content is beyond disrespectful.

María del Mar Pérez Banus faced an onslaught of criticism after she posted a clip that showed her participating in a popular dance trend while visiting a Shinto shrine in Japan

It sparked immense backlash for Maria, as one person branded her as a ‘stupid attention seeker,’ and another called her ‘extremely disrespectful’

‘If you’re traveling, show some respect for the culture and history of the places you visit.’

‘Shinto shrines are places of worship and the dwellings of the kami, the Shinto Gods,’ Japan-Guide.com previously wrote. ‘Torii gates mark the approach and entrance to a shrine.’

Amidst the fury, Maria took to Instagram to apologize.

‘I’m making this video to apologize to everyone,’ she said. ‘I really wasn’t thinking about what I was doing.

‘I want to apologize a thousand times. Please stop sending me messages and comments, I’m really sorry. I hope you can understand, thank you very much.’