A warning has been issued to tourists on taking pictures at a “Royal Family Burial Site” in the province of Chiang Mai. According to the locals, improper pictures have been made by tourists at the old Lanna Royal Family Burial Site in Wat Suan Dok. The photos are put up on Instagram.
Now, there’s a sign in both Thai and English in front of all the burial sites, and it reads “No Entry.” The locals are hopeful that incidents like that would be prevented from repeating itself. Leaders of the community pointed out that it’s an act of grave desecration to climb around the walls of the burial site in that manner, whether it was done intentionally or not. The burial sites contain the cremated remains of people of Royal descent who were important in the history of Chiang Mai.
English Sign in Front of the Burial Site
Putting up those signs at the burial site is a way of ensuring that incidents like that never reoccur in the future.
Now I went to this site a few times, it was located inside a University Campus, and I didn’t know that was a burial site. I thought they were small little temples because usually a Thai tombstone or a burial site would have a photo of the person on it. If I walk inside any temple in Thailand and see a picture of someone, that’s a sign it’s a tombstone. But these burials were there before the invention of cameras.
I’m not defending people climbing around this site, but if you can’t read Thai. You would not know it is a burial site. Now there is a sign in English, so there is no excuse.
Cultural misunderstandings are common in Thailand. With touching the Buddha statues and other misunderstandings of Thai culture. The previous year, a couple from America drew the attention of locals on the internet with their butt boy page on Instagram. They travelled through Thailand taking pictures of their naked butt in front of important buildings in Thailand and some temples putting up the photos on the internet.
After they were arrested, each was fined 5,000 baht. At the time the men were arrested, the Thai government officials said that it is a reminder that people should show some respect to Thai religion and culture.