Dave Johnson, Jim Barber, Linda Leon, Kevin Snow, Tom Horne, Steve Kritchels.
Description
:
At the Mauna Kea Hotel at Hapuna Beach in Kona. We had no idea how culturally inappropriate this was at the time.
From:
Ernie
(Tue Mar 22 11:02:01 2005)
My wife, who is Thai, was not particularly offended by this photo. It’s in an American hotel, not a Thai temple. The Buddha is more a decorative item rather than a religious symbol. Plus she’s used to seeing Americans make fun of sacred figures like nuns, or the Pope or Jesus bobbleheads, so she knows that there was no disrespect intended. That’s one Thai's reaction. You wouldn’t want to get caught doing that in Thailand. While we were volunteers in Thailand some Mormon missionaries decided to sit on the shoulders of a Buddha to take a photo one day. It caused quite a stir back then. It was front page news.