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Tourist 'upset' at Buddha tattoo row


Still Waters

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A British tourist is "shocked and upset" after being deported from Sri Lanka for displaying a Buddha tattoo on his arm, he says.

Antony Ratcliffe, 42, from Nottingham, was turned back at Colombo's main airport on Friday for allegedly showing a lack of respect for Buddhism.

The authorities are tough on perceived insults to Buddhism - the religion of the island's majority ethnic Sinhalese.

But Mr Ratcliffe says the "inoffensive" body art was meant as a tribute.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...d-asia-21820476

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I agree with them! if he wants to tribute them, then join them!

its not like England where people are allowed to disrespect our western cultures and do exactly what they like by enforcing their own and expecting us to accept them.

I wonder how much he really knows about it anyway?

Have seen many a chav have chinese writing on their body, but can not read or write it themselves!

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I thought one of the most important features of Buddhism was its tolerance and its opposition to forcing its dogmas on others. I suppose this is what happens when Authorities co-opt something as the Official State Religion, something that, just like with the teachings of Jesus, its founders never had any wish for their philosophy to become.

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I agree and see where you are coming from LV, but maybe in todays society people no longer start of with an inch, they start at the mile.

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Religions can be too touchy. At least he wasn't stoned to death.

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I wonder what the other side of the story is. I suspect if he had kept his shirt on things would have been fine.

Tatoos among some Buddhists have meanings that I don't fully understand, having to do with masculinity and sub-legal affiliations and various forms of magic, so tattoos are bound to be touchy. I know Thailand has a rule against the import of statues of the Buddha, but I don't know how strictly it is enforced.

If you want to vist a Buddhist temple almost anywhere, certain signs of respect are demanded. One wears long pants and often long sleeves, does not exhibit one's midriff, and so on. On entering the actual temple one of course removes one's shoes -- but that applies to all dwellings in most of Asia.

I remember once seeing a pair of European backpackers being ungently ushered out of a temple: I have no idea what they did.

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I agree with them! if he wants to tribute them, then join them!

its not like England where people are allowed to disrespect our western cultures and do exactly what they like by enforcing their own and expecting us to accept them.

I wonder how much he really knows about it anyway?

Have seen many a chav have chinese writing on their body, but can not read or write it themselves!

Brittany Spears has a tattoo of some chinese characters, but neither she nor the tattoo artist realised that they were put on backwards.

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Well I have some doubts as to both the wisdom and propriety of not admitting a tourist for this reason. I can see it happening -- tattoos are not seen as they are in the West -- they have a criminal flavor to them -- but surely someone has thought it through and decided that such things are to be expected from Westerners ignorant and insensitive to different cultures, and so must be tolerated.

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