Miss Universe bikini photos near Buddist temple offend some Thais

When did Buddhists get so damn sensitive? Bikini-clad beauty queens offend Thais.

Miss Universe organizers scrambled on Thursday to calm a furor over photos of bikini-clad contestants posing near an ancient Buddhist temple in pageant host Thailand after the images infuriated religious leaders.

The photos, which showed beauty queens on a Bangkok river cruise with the famed Wat Arun, or "Temple of Dawn," in the background, were swiftly removed from the pageant Web site.

The chair of the Senate tourism committee, Suradech Yasawat, said the photos, which were splashed on the front pages of most Thai newspapers, had hurt the country's image.

How big a deal could it be if the local papers "splashed" the photo on the front page? The "furor" seems to have died down quickly — no rampaging mobs, no arson, no one killed. Prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra urged those offended to "lighten up".

“We sometimes take things too seriously. They were cruising along the Chao Phya River and filming wherever they thought was beautiful,” the prime minister said.

“It’s just a matter of different cultures. They are not Buddhists. We told them, and they stepped back. Let’s not complain too much,” he said.

As of Friday, the English-language Thai papers online make no mention of the story, except for this confusing opinion poll in The Nation.

Swimsuits were the only costumes selected for a Miss Universe 2005 promotional footage featuring contestants in swimsuits with Buddhist sites in the background. Was it a deliberate or accidental act by the event organiser?
( ) Yes.
( ) No.

Scroll down for some very funny reader comments on both the controversy and the poll.

So where is the offending photo? Many Western media outlets have picked up the story without showing the actual photo, probably out of misguided respect for cultural sensitivities blah blah blah. But the crack Daze Reader research staff eventually found the Arun Wat bikini babes flaunting their blasphemous boobies. (The top photo here is apparently the one that sparked the tiff.)

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