"A temple is not a catwalk!" - Thais slam British tourist for temple pictures

[webfact]

"A temple is not a catwalk!" - Thais slam British tourist for temple pictures

 

Thai caption: Appropriate or not?

 

Thais have slammed a British tourist who posted pictures of herself walking on a wall at a famous Chiang Mai temple.

 

They have called for her to apologize for her behavior saying she should know better than to do this in a temple in Thailand. 

 

One post critical of her said that she shouldn't treat a temple as a personal catwalk. 

 

The tourist - who CM108.com said was British - was walking on the "Ku Jao Luang" wall at the temple of Wat Suan Dok on Suthep Road in Chiang Mai. 

 

She has been asked to remove her posts on Facebook and Instagram. The posts were made in the middle of last month and have been widely shared. 

 

Wat Suan Dok is a well know temple in the northern Thai city featuring many white pagodas. It is a Royal Temple of the third class. 

 

Source: CM108

 

 

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[BobBKK]

I agree now stop the Thais talking on their mobiles inside, chatting loudly, taking selfies with Buddha images and we are all square!

[Mitkof Island]

Another idiot foreigner comes to Thailand. One reason i avoid the tourist slums. I just cringe every time i see a foreigner wondering what stupid stunt are they going to pull next. remember these two?

[daoyai]

Rather nice photo, she should have know that even the walls are "sacred" in CM...LoL

[Mickc]

So let me get this right, two tiered pricing and decorating temples with action figures and cartoon characters and you want tourists to treat temples with respect? Now I agree there can be some crude and offensive behavioreven to western standards and that is completely unacceptable. However, given that tourists are treated like cash cows some leniency should be given. 

[Lucius verus]

She's on the outer wall and appropriately dressed. 

No big deal.

She certainly beats all the stray dogs and cats that are dumped at temples.

Rather look at her than piles of urine and poo.

 

[gunderhill]

Meanwhile where netizens and their great big  honking  noses arent, at the ruins in Ayuthaya the  Thais are  walking all over their "precious" temple ruins even though signs are written in Thai and English saying "dont".

Thais, worlds  biggest busybodies, got nothing better to do all day except gawk at their phones.

[BritManToo]

Can't see anything wrong in the photo.

Thais need to get over themselves.

[sammieuk1]

They have called for her to apologize for her behavior saying she should know better than to have come to Thailand more like????

[Genmai]

I wonder what Buddha would have said about the people with their panties in a twist over a beautiful photo?

 

Oh, I forgot - the prevalent religion here is a total perversion of the principal teachings of Buddha and is such a far cry from the original guidance that it shouldn't even bear his name. He even specifically told people not to build temples and to just walk the path instead. Now """monks""" deal dope, rape kids, get in fights on public transport, get drunk at parties and storm schools to molest underage students and punch teachers during exams, and basically sit around getting fat all day playing on their phone. Every time I go to Central I can spot at least one waddling about looking for a new phone. Meanwhile they get subsidized by overcharged dopey farangs on some enlightenment trip and Thais who think throwing a bit of money about will absolve them of any repercussions from stupid behavior. How is anyone with a brain supposed to respect any of this?

 

Ask any Thai what their "training" consists of and you realize there is 0 incentive or enforcement in their "practice". If you want to see real Buddhism in this supposedly Buddhist country you have to go to a Vipassana meditation center.

 

One of the few good things about the wats is free parking. I pay my taxes so feel freely entitled to use their parking and toilets. The other good thing is photoshoot locations. I sincerely hope the Brit doesn't cave in to this hypocritical hoity toity holier-than-thou BS we see so much from Thai people. 

[TumblinDice]

All's I can say is

[Fatboysrule]

[yellowboat]

Ranks rather low on tourists acting badly, but rather high on some Thais misplaced priorities.  Comes across as super sensitive and petty.

[legend49]

I cant see a Union Jack tattooed on her, how can they say she is UK. Bit like the Chinese guy urinating in Pattya turned out to be a Thai with a mental issue.

[remorhaz]

Taking pictures like that offends the Buddha but theft, corruption, fraud and outright lies do not.  In fact those don't even warrant a top up of the Red Fanta to feed the hornets.  

[Matzzon]

4 hours ago, Mitkof Island said:

Another idiot foreigner comes to Thailand. One reason i avoid the tourist slums. I just cringe every time i see a foreigner wondering what stupid stunt are they going to pull next. remember these two?

That´s thye ones that butted on the photo.

[CanterbrigianBangkoker]

Pppfff....Grow up Thailand and please get over yourselves. Neither your temples nor your culture are being disrespected in this photo in any conceivable way. It is, to be fair, quite tasteful and elegant, with no offense intended that seems obvious. Nothing like a chinese slack-jaw kicking a monastry bell etc.

 

And, whats more, if they really gave a flying <deleted> about love, equality, respect and all other things Buddhist then they wouldn't impose the tiered pricing structure that rapes the tourists that these places (in large part) rely on for their upkeep etc. 'Nok sorng hua' comes to mind - 'two headed bird' i.e.: two faced attitude to life. Sadly quite typical here. 

[Matzzon]

Just senseless stupid tourists again. They probably know and see everybody take off their shoes when entering a temple, and then can´t see the connection to that it´s not ok to put your feet on other things than the ground or floor in a temple area. Just get rid of them. Fine them and deport them. They are a disgrace to human intelligence.

[klauskunkel]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

"A temple is not a catwalk!"

[rkidlad]

This is why I stay away from temples. Full of sanctimony and hypocrisy. 

 

Oh, and my missus and her friends do this kind of thing when they visit temples. Seems many Thais do. 

[Matzzon]

3 minutes ago, CanterbrigianBangkoker said:

Pppfff....Grow up Thailand and please get over yourselves. Neither your temples nor your culture are being disrespected in this photo in any conceivable way. It is, to be fair, quite tasteful and elegant, with no offense intended that seems obvious. Nothing like a chinese slack-jaw kicking a monastry bell etc.

 

And, whats more, if they really gave a flying <deleted> about love, equality, respect and all other things Buddhist then they wouldn't impose the tiered pricing structure that rapes the tourists that these places (in large part) rely on for their upkeep etc. 'Nok sorng hua' comes to mind - 'two headed bird' i.e.: two faced attitude to life. Sadly quite typical here. 

Sure, you should come to Thailand and do like you want. They should listen to how you want it to be. Stop, and accept the culture in the country you visit. End!

[gunderhill]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai caption: Appropriate or not?

Not!!  thats  right,  Buddha  would  not have liked this awful gold adorned nonsense dedicated to him in any way..........Oh  sorry are  we  talking about the woman?

[Vacuum]

4 hours ago, Lucius verus said:

piles of urine

Someone who manage to do this should consult a doctor.

[poohy]

Photos look nice and tasteful

 

Considering whats going in their country, and temples i hardly feel these are up there on the worrying the "world will end" list.

 

It does however highlight the eggshell skin and petty entitlement some Thais have /are.

 

Disgusted from Prachuap Khiri Khan????

[chrisinth]

I'm trying, with difficulty, to remember what we use to complain about before we had social (sic) media. And all the 'terrible' things we used to get away with. Today (in every single country) we have trolls whose sole mission in life is to make mountains out of molehills. I know this has a religious twist to it, but come on.

 

Not saying it was right to do it, but were there signs available for the tourists on what is acceptable in the temple grounds? Just asking.

 

I have visions of the day when some visitor shares their picture of them putting ketchup or even HP sauce on their somtam and the uproar that would cause. That would amount to immigration having the lynchpin to get rid of all of us.

 

Truly sad IMO.

[martinhp]

No it's just a misunderstanding she are not walking she is flying very very close to the wall but not walking. 

So no problem 

 

[Matzzon]

3 minutes ago, chrisinth said:

Not saying it was right to do it, but were there signs available for the tourists on what is acceptable in the temple grounds? Just asking.

Oh, so we have come to the point when there is a need for signs, for people to practise something called common sense?

Just maybe that has something to do with all the social media too. Making people dumber!

[OneMoreFarang]

5 hours ago, Mitkof Island said:

Another idiot foreigner comes to Thailand. One reason i avoid the tourist slums. I just cringe every time i see a foreigner wondering what stupid stunt are they going to pull next. remember these two?

Please look at your own picture and then think about how appropriate that is in Thailand. And you write about "idiot foreigner"...

[CNXexpat]

Thailand wants millions of tourists but forgot that perhaps 5% of them a ignorant idiots without common sense. 40 mio. tourist means 2 mio. of them. 

[CanterbrigianBangkoker]

1 hour ago, Matzzon said:

Sure, you should come to Thailand and do like you want. They should listen to how you want it to be. Stop, and accept the culture in the country you visit. End!

I never said that visitors or ex-pats in Thailand should be able to 'do what they want' or disrespect the culture or laws of the land, you're over-reacting to my reasonable position.

 

If the person in question was doing anything inflammatory or disrespectful I would feel differently and probably agree with you. Outrage is taken too far here (all over these days) and all too readily - and hypocritically, that's my point and it's a well known one here. Exactly what part of Thai culture was being defamed or disrespected by a woman striking an elegant pose for a very innocuous photo within the temple grounds? She wasn't doing anything rude or OTT! The Thai's reactionary response to anyone who is other than prostrate with piety within temple grounds is just childish and backward. It is their country? Sure. Do we have a right to do whatever we want here? No, certainly not. Do we as visitors and significant contributors to their economy (largely based on tourism) have a right to offer our opinion on their very arcane and ultra-conservative views? Yes of course we do.  Xenophobia is a big issue here too, the fact that they charge non-nationals double or triple for these 'attractions' says it all really. This is their view - it's backward, we must accept it for the time being, but the reduction in tourism (especially from the West and now China) is due in no small part to these hypocrisies, prejudices and absurdities - hence the 'grow up and get over yourselves' comment. I hope in time their views will shift and become less precious and their ability to reason become more enhanced.  As another poster pointed out, you nearly always see cats, dogs and birds shitting and pissing all over the place in these temples, without mentioning the tiger temples (organ harvesting) and multiple scandals involving numerous monks over the years - so again the hypocrisy is writ large. Moreover, I have seen many Thais and other Asian tourists striking similar poses in and around temples here in Thailand. So I ask - why is this any different or being treated as something more serious / taboo!?

 

Just saying 'that's their way if you don't like it leave' is a fair comment in one respect, but it doesn't address any of the points I made whatsoever so is basically a cop-out, and, ultimately, it is to the detriment of Thai society, economy and tourist industry.