French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

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buddhaflower
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French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by buddhaflower »

Dear Members,

Today I stumbled on a very strange news.........

French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss
[www.relax.com.sg/relax/news/1279524/French_tourists_get... - Cached]

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COLOMBO - Three French tourists were given suspended six-month prison sentences in Sri Lanka on Tuesday after their holiday pictures appeared to show one of them - a woman - kissing a Buddha statue on the lips.

All three - two women and a man - pleaded guilty to desecrating a Buddhist shrine in the central town of Kandy and were also fined 1,500 rupees (S$14.2) each, police told AFP.

As well as the woman's apparent kiss, the man tried to imitate the pose of the Buddha and their actions hurt the feelings of Buddhists in the country, police told a magistrate in Galle.

Officers were alerted to the incident after the visitors tried to get their holiday pictures printed.

"The studio employee saw the images and alerted the Galle police who arrested the tourists on Monday and the case was concluded today because they pleaded guilty," said police spokesman Ajith Rohana.

The tourists were free to go as their jail sentences were suspended for five years and the magistrate did not make any order to expel them from the country, he added.

Sri Lanka is majority Buddhist and is sensitive to foreigners showing disrespect to Buddha images.

Shrines and temples have banned tourists visiting unless they are conservatively dressed.

Sri Lanka banned United States rap star Akon in March 2010 arguing that he had produced a music video involving scantily clad women in front of a Buddha statue.

Eight years ago, Sri Lanka's supreme court ordered police and customs to seize Buddha Bar music and bikinis with Buddha images after monks complained they hurt local religious feelings.

***********Buddhaflower
lowlydog
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by lowlydog »

Religious Buddhists was not the intent of the Buddha.

Living being---statue-----living being-----statue :rolleye:

It shows the level of craving and aversion caused by religious views.
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Skydancer
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by Skydancer »

Religious Buddhists was not the intent of the Buddha.
Perhaps, but that does not mean that you can visit another culture and act like a barbarian / idiot. I don't see anyone doing that in Middle East. Hmm... I wonder why? :smile:
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Grigoris
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by Grigoris »

Why go to the Middle East? Why not look at what happened to Pussy Riot over in Russia?

You think that if you tried to pull a stunt like that in St Peters and Pauls in the Vatican or the Notre Dame (given the tourists were French) in Paris that you would not invoke a similar reaction? What if they tried to pull the same stunt at the Lincoln memorial? With the Trafalgar square statue of Eros?

It may just be a statue, but disrespect is disrespect. The same thing happened here in Greece when a bunch of drunk English lads photographed themselves showing their butts at an ancient Greek archaeological site.

Religious or secular, you can't just crap all over peoples culture.
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plwk
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by plwk »

Yes, just like defacing an image of the Karmapa and Master Hsuan Hua.... but it's just a picture, right? Tsk tsk...my attachment to appearances... :spy:
lowlydog
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by lowlydog »

Did she deface or destroy the wooden statue, I repeat non living inanimate object. She just kissed a painted piece of wood. :smile:
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Grigoris
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by Grigoris »

plwk wrote:Yes, just like defacing an image of the Karmapa and Master Hsuan Hua.... but it's just a picture, right? Tsk tsk...my attachment to appearances... :spy:
Touche!
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:namaste:
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
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catmoon
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by catmoon »

Perhaps it would easier to understand if we consider what the Western reaction would be to some Buddhist tourist coming into the Vatican and doing the same to a life size marble crucifix. Just for laughs.
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lowlydog
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by lowlydog »

Attatchments :thinking:
deepbluehum
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by deepbluehum »

I can't think of any French that shouldn't be jailed.
uan
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by uan »

lowlydog wrote:Attatchments :thinking:

yes, the French tourists certainly seemed attached to their own sense of doing what they want, where they want.
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Karma Dondrup Tashi
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by Karma Dondrup Tashi »

deepbluehum wrote:I can't think of any French that shouldn't be jailed.
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Nosta
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss !!

Post by Nosta »

gregkavarnos wrote:Why go to the Middle East? Why not look at what happened to Pussy Riot over in Russia?

You think that if you tried to pull a stunt like that in St Peters and Pauls in the Vatican or the Notre Dame (given the tourists were French) in Paris that you would not invoke a similar reaction? What if they tried to pull the same stunt at the Lincoln memorial? With the Trafalgar square statue of Eros?

It may just be a statue, but disrespect is disrespect. The same thing happened here in Greece when a bunch of drunk English lads photographed themselves showing their butts at an ancient Greek archaeological site.

Religious or secular, you can't just crap all over peoples culture.
:namaste:
Completly agree!

Possibly, the jail punishment to the woman is too heavy, perhaps a fine would be ok, but she is not free to make offensive things such as that. At a few years ago (maybe 3-4), a brasilian actress (Maitê Proença, well known in Portugal) did a small personal video spitting over portuguese monuments and said very offensive things against Portugal.
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buddhaflower
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss

Post by buddhaflower »

Dear members,

I have more kissing Buddha pictures..........some nice.. some not nice.............

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***********Buddhaflower :thinking:
plwk
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss

Post by plwk »

Image
This looks more like the statue of Nigrantha or Mahavira, the standard feature of body nudity and the srivatsa (swastika) on the chest?
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Nosta
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Re: French tourists get Sri Lanka jail term over Buddha kiss

Post by Nosta »

Well, kissing it in a warm and respectful way is not a bad thing.

I really enjoy the sweety little girl kissing the Buddha :)
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