I was watching a TV show on the Travel Channel, and it was about Laos. One clip showed a Buddhist ritual. Every day, the Buddhist monks (wearing traditional robes) walk in a procession between the temples. Worshippers line the streets and bring bowls of cooked rice with them. When the monks walk past, they reverently give each one a small bit of rice as an offering. The gifts of rice are the only food the monks are allowed to eat.
Then the cameras showed several Western tourists lining the street. The tourists had their cameras out and were taking pictures of the procession.
That bothered me. Granted, the ritual takes place in a public street. But it seems wrong to me for a bunch of tourists to be snapping pictures of an important, serious religious ritual as if it was some kind of parade. I think that's very disrespectful.
Does that bother anyone else? Or do you think there's nothing wrong with it?
Then the cameras showed several Western tourists lining the street. The tourists had their cameras out and were taking pictures of the procession.
That bothered me. Granted, the ritual takes place in a public street. But it seems wrong to me for a bunch of tourists to be snapping pictures of an important, serious religious ritual as if it was some kind of parade. I think that's very disrespectful.
Does that bother anyone else? Or do you think there's nothing wrong with it?