Gilded Buddha statue in Beijing becomes
latest victim of tourist vandalism
South
China Morning Post Chris Luo 2013-09-18
Sept 17 -- Buddha statue in Qianling Mountain
Park has been defaced by tourists several times over the
years.
A giant Buddha statue at a Beijing tourist
attraction has fallen victim to vandalism, the latest in a series
of acts exposed by Chinese media.
Staff at Qianling Mountain Park in southwest
Beijing recently found palm-sized Chinese characters reading “Xu
Donghui”, apparently a person’s name, carved on the right leg and
stomach of the gilt Buddha statue.
The park’s staff told The Beijing News that
tourists were responsible, and that had been frequent instances in
which tourists tried to carve their names or other blessings on the
statue using sharp tools since it had been built in 2006. The
ongoing vandalism had already led to a restoration of the statue
several years ago in which a gilt overlay was reapplied over the
Buddha, according to the newspaper’s report.
"We have no authority to punish them, but only
to stop them if [we] discover their wrongdoings,” a staff surnamed
Yu said. “[We] may have to paste gilt layer again despite its
considerable cost.”
Senior tourism researcher Liu Simin of the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the News that although the
Buddha statue was not a relic, it was property of the park and the
administrator had the right to coordinate with the authorities in
seeking penalties for the abusers.
The abuse of the Buddha statue echoes the news
in May of a Chinese teenage tourist’s graffiti in Egypt, which was
widely reported by media around the globe. The boy defaced a
3500-year-old Egyptian temple while trying to carve his own name on
its wall.
Although the boy’s parents later apologised to
the public on his behalf, the event has made Chinese tourists’ rude
and embarrassing behaviour notorious around the world.
It even prompted China’s
vice-premier Wang Yang to urge his countrymen to watch for their
behavior when travelling overseas.
Explaining this phenomenon, Liu said
General speaking tourists do not vandalize public properties
deliberately. They simply want to have a sense of presence and to
show off.
Meanwhile, shoddy behavior by mainland
tourists last week has also reportedly contributed to a recent
ongoing spat between Chinese mainland internet users and those from
Taiwan. A Taiwan resident claimed over the weekend that a Henan
tourist party visiting the Alishan National Scenic Area had been
speaking loudly and spitting everywhere, sparking a heated online
debate.