[opelayday]

Right, but then it's also easy to "blame the foreigners" for any perceived insult when perhaps the real problems lie closer to home. For instance, while the incident of the director sitting on top of the statue is undoubtedly insensitive and ignorant, compare it to a few of the incidents regarding monks and abbots in Thailand in recent years and see which you think are worse...

"In 1996, Jo Masheder...was killed when she embarked on a backpacking trip to Thailand. She was pushed to her death in a ravine by a drug-addicted monk....Yodchart Suephoo, who was sentenced to death for the murder, pushed her to her death after stealing £12 and a camera from her. "

"On Monday (October 30), police arrested a Buddhist abbot for allegedly killing a woman whose body was found a week earlier inside a septic tank at a neighbor's home.Police seized Abbot Adhikan Arn Wattanadhammo, 46, in Petchabun town while he reportedly tried to burn bloodstained clothing and destroy a ring inscribed with the dead woman's surname. "

" In 1996, Thailand's freakiest Buddhist monk roasted a dead baby to extract "magical" oil, which dripped from its charred corpse.Police arrested Harn Raksajit, popularly known as Aer, after publication of a photograph showing how he allegedly grilled the tiny victim. "

"Reports said Phra Khru Viboon Pattanakit, abbot of the Sisakrabua temple in Bangkok, had collected around 60 classic cars, many of them Mercedes Benz"

"Chiang Mai police said a 26-year-old monk forged the head monk's ID card to steal 300,000 baht in cash to gamble on the World Cup. Police were alerted when the abbot at Wat Donnoi noticed that bankbooks were missing. Reports didn't say if the monk had won any bets"

"Some monks, after receiving food donated by devotees each morning, have sacrilegiously dumped it from their alms bowls into big plastic bags, and later sold the food to street vendors."

"A warrant for the arrest of Phra Dhammachayo, who is the abbot of the Wat Dhammakaya, was issued on Monday....Phra Dhammachayo is a charismatic middle-aged man who is said to be one of Thailand's richest landlords, stands accused of embezzling land and money from his supporters"

etc.... and that's just what I found with a quick web-search, there's many more out there. Though I'm sure this "culture booklet" is a good move, it seems a bit of a rose-tinted viewpoint to me for the authorities to suggest that it's foreigners who do most to harm the reputation of Buddhism in Thailand.