{"id":6078,"date":"2016-08-11T23:20:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T05:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?p=6078"},"modified":"2016-08-12T13:37:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T19:37:18","slug":"tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html","title":{"rendered":"Tourists: Buddha Tattoos are Taboo; as are See-Through dresses at Buddhist holy sites"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It seems like only last month that another tourist was deported from Myanmar (Burma) for publicly showing off his Buddha tattoo. Oh wait, it was<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post reported that Cesar Hernandez of Spain was there with his wife when people began noticing his seated Buddha tattoo covering much of his calf. Buddhist monks kindly informed him that the tattoo was inappropriate. The\u00a0tourists\u00a0were then detained and deported or, perhaps, asked kindly to leave or be careful.<\/p>\n

As the Post reports, \u201cA Canadian professor\u00a0was deported two years ago<\/a> because he, too, had a Buddha tattoo. That same year<\/a>, Sri Lanka deported a British nurse who had inked the Buddha on her arm.\u00a0Both insisted that they tattooed the man on their bodies out of religious devotion, not lack of respect. They were told that they were violating the law, put into custody, then kicked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2014, another tourist was kicked out of Sri Lanka<\/a> for a tattoo on her upper arm. In 2012, three French tourists were convicted of \u201cwounding the religious feelings of Buddhists by taking pictures deemed insulting\u201d \u2013 pretending to kiss a Buddha statue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, a Thai news source writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Hours after a\u00a0blonde woman\u00a0was photographed wearing a see-through dress while visiting a sacred temple in Phuket, she\u00a0was invited to the police station to get a lesson on Thai culture last night.<\/p>\n

The tourist, a Russian national, had to make a stop at Tourist Police Command Center with her tour guide and apologize for her actions after photos of her parading around Chalong Temple in a flimsy beach cover-up went viral and was criticized by furious Buddhists.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Images and Thai comments can be seen on facebook here: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/644806732307762\/permalink\/1021676804620751\/<\/a><\/p>\n

This further underscores the need for respect when entering the space of other cultures. Respect comes from understanding and an openness and readiness to alter one\u2019s behavior based on the wishes of others. This in turn depends on humility, recognizing that one\u2019s own cultural mores and customs are not universal or superior. Humility is a tough virtue to come by these days, and thus a difficult one to instill upon people who don\u2019t have it.<\/p>\n

But, if you care to travel to Asia, you\u2019d best learn a bit first and follow local decorum, or you \u00a0might find yourself learning it in a police station or\u00a0on an\u00a0early flight home.<\/p>\n

The best advice is to ask around, do plenty of\u00a0research before you travel. Then, do your best to follow the locals. When in doubt, ask. Your hotel staff should speak some English and be willing to advise you. Taxi\/Tuk-tuk drivers too should speak English depending on how touristy your location is. Many locals, again, location depending, will also be happy to help.<\/p>\n

<\/p>

Stay in touch with American Buddhist Perspectives on Facebook:<\/em><\/center>\n
\n
\n
\n

American Buddhist Perspectives<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems like only last month that another tourist was deported from Myanmar (Burma) for publicly showing off his Buddha tattoo. Oh wait, it was. The Washington Post reported that Cesar Hernandez of Spain was there with his wife when people began noticing his seated Buddha tattoo covering much of his calf. Buddhist monks kindly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":6079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[189,103],"tags":[520,532,584],"class_list":["post-6078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buddhism-today","category-thailand","tag-buddhism","tag-thailand","tag-tourism"],"yoast_head":"\nTourists: Buddha Tattoos are Taboo; as are See-Through dresses at Buddhist holy sites<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It seems like only last month that another tourist was deported from Myanmar (Burma) for publicly showing off his Buddha tattoo. Oh wait, it was. The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tourists: Buddha Tattoos are Taboo; as are See-Through dresses at Buddhist holy sites\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems like only last month that another tourist was deported from Myanmar (Burma) for publicly showing off his Buddha tattoo. Oh wait, it was. The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-12T05:20:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-12T19:37:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2016\/08\/see-through-dress-in-thailand.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"635\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"393\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html\",\"name\":\"Tourists: Buddha Tattoos are Taboo; as are See-Through dresses at Buddhist holy sites\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-12T05:20:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-12T19:37:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"It seems like only last month that another tourist was deported from Myanmar (Burma) for publicly showing off his Buddha tattoo. Oh wait, it was. The\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tourists: Buddha Tattoos are Taboo; as are See-Through dresses at Buddhist holy sites\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tourists: Buddha Tattoos are Taboo; as are See-Through dresses at Buddhist holy sites","description":"It seems like only last month that another tourist was deported from Myanmar (Burma) for publicly showing off his Buddha tattoo. Oh wait, it was. The","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tourists: Buddha Tattoos are Taboo; as are See-Through dresses at Buddhist holy sites","og_description":"It seems like only last month that another tourist was deported from Myanmar (Burma) for publicly showing off his Buddha tattoo. Oh wait, it was. The","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html","og_site_name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","article_published_time":"2016-08-12T05:20:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-08-12T19:37:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":635,"height":393,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2016\/08\/see-through-dress-in-thailand.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Justin Whitaker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Whitaker","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html","name":"Tourists: Buddha Tattoos are Taboo; as are See-Through dresses at Buddhist holy sites","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-08-12T05:20:21+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-12T19:37:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9"},"description":"It seems like only last month that another tourist was deported from Myanmar (Burma) for publicly showing off his Buddha tattoo. Oh wait, it was. The","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2016\/08\/tourists-buddha-tattoos-are-taboo-as-are-see-through-dresses-at-buddhist-holy-sites.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tourists: Buddha Tattoos are Taboo; as are See-Through dresses at Buddhist holy sites"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/","name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9","name":"Justin Whitaker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Justin Whitaker"},"description":"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}