Buddhist Batman anyone?

As a member of the Bangkok Photographers Group I usually manage to join their once a month photo walks and shoot lots of pics.

At first I was hesitant as the whole idea of walking around with a large group of (in some cases massive) camera toting invaders of local areas seemed rather off putting, but in reality the group quickly spreads out and members usually ask permission before taking someone’s picture and it becomes a very relaxed affair.

Being a bit of compulsive walker myself I have left plenty of (carbon free I think) footprints in Bangkok, but on these walks I still encounter plenty of places I hadn’t seen before, which makes it definitely interesting to me.

One of those was a highly unusual temple: Wat Pariwat.

This temple made headlines in 2000 when the abbot decided to have a statue of David Beckham among its deities!

At the time I’d missed this news item completely, perhaps due to having zero interest in football…

Since then there have been more off the wall characters added as you can see...

The argument apparently is that monks have to be up to date as this will encourage the younger generations into coming to the temple and embracing Buddhism, something I have strong doubts about, but who knows?!