Thread: Tourist's shock at Buddhist temple has a mural of planes hitting the Twin Towers

Mis-typed thread title but i think you can figure it out!

More pics at:

Tourist's shock at Thai temple which has mural of 9/11 terror attacks | Mail Online

But you'll probably not care anyway.

A mural in a Thai temple has been criticised as 'totally inappropriate' for depicting the 9/11 terrorist attacks alongside comic book characters and celebrities.
The White Temple at Chiang Rai is the bizarre pet project of controversial Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat

As well as depicting planes flying into the Twin Towers, the mural at Chiang Rai features fictional characters such as Spiderman and Harry Potter, celebrities like Michael Jackson, as well as fighter jets and spaceships.






The huge painting appears opposite a wall featuring a large Buddha and traditional Buddhist statues.
Photography inside the temple is forbidden, but one tourist managed to take this picture using a camera phone.
The 31-year-old insurance broker from Nottingham, who did not want to be named, said: 'The whole place is very strange. There's a pit full of hands and skulls outside that looks like something from the Walking Dead.
'Inside I was shocked to see a painting of planes flying into the Twin Towers. I just think it's totally inappropriate.'

Designed by Kositpipat in 1997, the surreal temple is still under construction and isn't due to finish until 2070.
Kositpipat uses a team of 60 other artists to help him work on the building, and has passed designs on to them so they can continue working after he dies.
Another visitor to the temple, 38-year-old business owner Alexey Statsenko said: 'It was so different from anything I had seen before.

'When we entered I was pretty shocked to see all those images from American popular culture- Michael Jackson, Terminator, Kung-Fu panda, Harry Potter and more.

'I did not know what to think of it. It seemed some kind of a mockery.'

'Only death can stop my dream, but cannot stop my project,' he said in 2003, adding that he believes the work will give him 'immortal life'.
He is also behind the Wat Buddhapadipa temple in Wimbledon, London, which contains another controversial mural charting the life of Buddha from birth to death.

However, mixed in with symbols from traditional Thai culture are punks sporting Mohicans and leather jackets, Charlie Chaplin, and Margaret Thatcher.

The artist claims this is in keeping with conventional Thai temple art which portrayed scenes from ancient Thai life alongside figures from Buddhist mythology.
However his work has attracted strong criticism. Speaking in 1998, shortly after the London murals were finished, he said: 'I got complaints from everybody – from the [Thai] government, from monks and from other artists, saying that what I was doing was not Thai art.'

I would expect hello kitty to dominate

Originally Posted by DJ Pat

A mural in a Thai temple has been criticised as 'totally inappropriate' for depicting the 9/11 terrorist attacks alongside comic book characters and celebrities.
The White Temple at Chiang Rai is the bizarre pet project of controversial Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat

As well as depicting planes flying into the Twin Towers, the mural at Chiang Rai features fictional characters such as Spiderman and Harry Potter, celebrities like Michael Jackson, as well as fighter jets and spaceships.

Phuketbound's favourite Thai temple, if I remember correctly.

Says it all, really.

Why is such expression inappropriate?

Hollywood was making movies about carpet bombing cities before the war was even over.
How long before 9/11 is pop culture?

who gets past the beer shops outside temples anyway ?

my allergy to religion flares up if I get too close

I ve been there a few times and I wasnt shocked .
Although I was a bit annoyed by a sign outside saying that "Due to previous bad behavior by Foreigners, all Foreigners who want to go into the Temple must be accompanied by a Thai tour guide"

Why is such expression inappropriate?

thais go ballistic if they think foreigners disrespect their precious culture, yet think nothing of appropriating western culture and imagery in ways that are obviously offensive to to the sensibilities of westerners.

(nazi imagery has often been used by thais with little thought to the sensibilities of westerners.)

i would also add that westerners, especially americans, can be a bit hypersensitive about events such as 9/11.

from the photographs, the murals look much like the deluded expressionism often to be seen on the bedroom walls of western male teens with a hobbit fixation allied to a obsessive masturbation habit, so it is perfectly understandable that a thai male would produce this meaningless garbage and consider it high art.

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Why is such expression inappropriate?

Exactly, sensitive ignorant seppos. This is like the muzzies having a cry about a satire movie depicting mohammed.

Originally Posted by taxexile

rom the photographs, the murals look much like the deluded expressionism often to be seen on the bedroom walls of western male teens with a hobbit fixation allied to a obsessive masturbation habit, so it is perfectly understandable that a thai male would produce this meaningless garbage and consider it high art.

Fuck me that read like a smeg post.

Thanks Rainfall. That is something I never knew despite being fairly well read in modern history.

Originally Posted by taxexile

i would also add that westerners, especially americans, can be a bit hypersensitive about events such as 9/11.

Yep.
Time for these folks to get over it.

Not an overwhelming historic event anyway.

Shame the picture doesn't have more pixels, I'd like to identify all the small details. I believe it expresses that the destruction of the towers is exploited to fuel something, presumably the American way of life.

rural surin

Not an overwhelming historic event anyway.

maybe not to the inwardly looking bubble dwelling thais, but to most of the civilised world it was an overwhelming historic event.

was the tsunami an overwhelming historic event?

I quite like it - quite an accurate representation some might say

Originally Posted by taxexile

maybe not to the inwardly looking bubble dwelling thais, but to most of the civilised world it was an overwhelming historic event.

Only a promoted illusion to be widely important.
It was [is] not - thank you very much.

With the exception of the extremely cultural-centric few and their blind faith.

The attack on the twin towers has been seen by millions all over the world on their TV screens. It can still be seen on Youtube. Why on earth shouldn't it be depicted in art form?

Originally Posted by DJ Pat

A mural in a Thai temple has been criticised as 'totally inappropriate' for depicting the 9/11 terrorist attacks alongside comic book characters and celebrities.

I have to say that I missed that - and think that now I've seen it I truly rate the guy as an artist,

Spot on - 9/11 was Disney special FX.

Also have to say that while the Thais around me stared at me waiting for a reaction of awe and amazement, I had to shake my head and say

"Guess you've never been to The Vatican then?"

Originally Posted by Rainfall

Yes, the swastika, one of the most misunderstood symbols in history. Maybe it's old Aryan or Indian or occult, maybe that was all invented after WW2, but what is for certain is that Hitler knew it as a symbol of Christianity. He saw it every day in the church he attented, in the Abbey of Lambach am Traun in Austria.



Is it possible the Thais know something that has been hidden from you?

That isnt actually a swastika though .

Correct it is not a swastika,
it is the symbol for the " Ilse of Man" off the coast of Britain, you fly over it on your way to Belfast.

I see. However, the symbol of the Isle of Man seems to be somewhat different.



I always wondered where this funny word 'swastika' comes from, why this gay word and not the harsh German term 'Hakenkreuz'? It just sounds so much meaner. Hakenkreuz, 'cross with hooks'. The 90% angle of the German swastika isn't really a hook, but the one in Hitler's church is. And the Christian 'cross' had to be eliminated to disguise Hitler's motivation.

I like the Temple art work, it is so much more powerful than the "Banksy" artist .
The pretentious U.K graffiti based millionaire .
A Thai work of art that is art.

So, will the person who took the picture be tracked down and arrested?...