A foreign tourist stood beside a golden Buddha image at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, raised her right hand, and smiled for the camera. She had no idea she had just copied the statue behind her exactly.
The clip went up on TikTok from the account @siwa219 and Thai viewers have been quietly delighted with it since.
The image she posed next to is in an attitude called Pang Ham Yat, or Forbidding the Relatives. It is a standing Buddha with the right hand raised to chest height and the palm turned outwards.
Nobody was offended. The comments ran affectionate rather than annoyed, which is not always how these clips go.
The posture is worth knowing if you live here. Thai Buddha images come in dozens of attitudes, each called a pang, and every one of them records a specific moment from the Buddha’s life.
Pang Ham Yat marks the day he stepped between two feuding clans. His father’s family, the Sakya, and his mother’s family, the Koliya, were close to fighting over water rights on the Rohini river. He stopped them with one raised hand.
It is also the birthday Buddha for anyone born on a Monday. Thais match each day of the week to a posture, and plenty of people keep a small image of their own day at home.
The one it gets confused with is Pang Ham Samut, or Calming the Ocean. Same raised palm, same message, except both hands go up instead of one.
Standing close enough to pose beside an image is fine at most temples. What matters is what you do once you are there.
- Cover your shoulders and knees before you go in. Big temples will usually lend you a wrap if you turn up in shorts.
- Take your shoes off where the sign says to, and where everyone else already has.
- Never sit higher than a Buddha image, and never climb one for a photo.
- Do not point your feet at an image or at a monk. Tuck your legs to the side when you sit down.
- Turning your back on an image for a selfie reads as rude. Stand beside it, the way she did.
- Women do not hand things directly to a monk. Put the item down and let him pick it up.
The rules are less about the object than about the room. A working temple is not a museum, and most of the people around you came to make merit rather than take pictures.
One more thing that catches visitors out. Taking a Buddha image out of Thailand can require a permit from the Fine Arts Department, and the souvenir stall will not always mention it.
As for the tourist at Doi Suthep, she did nothing wrong at all. She just happened to pick the one pose the statue behind her had already taken.
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Source: Kapook. Images: TikTok/@siwa219 via Kapook
The story Tourist poses beside a Buddha at Doi Suthep and accidentally nails the pose as seen on Thaiger News.
