Advice to tourists: don’t show your Buddha tattoo in Myanmar

The skyline of Bagan, Myanmar, is dotted with more than 2,200 Buddhist temples. Built largely in the 13th and 14th centuries, they’re beautiful – a dusty red sandstone or a glinting gold – with massive Buddha statues inside. People flock from Thailand, China, Japan, the United States and Europe to see the ancient city and often to practise Buddhism.

But Westerners approach Buddhism differently to locals. That was made obvious when Myanmese officials were poised to deport a Spanish tourist with a Buddha tattooed on the back of his leg.

The Spaniard, identified as Cesar Hernandez, was with his wife when monks in Bagan started noticing the tattoo. Photos show that it covers nearly all of the back of his calf.

“Monks in Bagan saw a Buddha tattoo on his right leg because he was wearing shorts. They informed us as it’s not appropriate,” a police officer in Bagan told AFP anonymously.

Hernandez and his wife then got the boot from Bagan. They were placed in detention nearly 400 miles away in Rangoon, Myanmar’s largest city. An officer said that the country planned to deport the Spaniard to Bangkok. “We will send him back because he violated the rules as a tourist here,” he said.