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Thais are a deeply religious people who consider all Buddhist images extremely sacred - no matter their age or condition. Sacrilegious acts are punishable by imprisonment, even when committed by (“ignorant”) foreign visitors. Several years ago, two Mormon missionaries posed for photographs on top of a Buddha image in Sukhothai. The developing lab in Bangkok turned the negatives over to a Bangkok newspaper, which published the offending photographs on the front page. Public outrage was so strong that the foreigners were arrested and put in jail. More recently, Sports Illustrated was refused permission to use religious shrines as backdrops for its swimsuit issue, and a Vogue model was arrested the following year for posing beside a religious monument in Phuket.
The icons, churches, temples and sacred places of any religious group should always be respected by others on their travels. Ignorance is scant excuse. |
