David Beckham Statue Placed At Altar Of Bangkok Temple
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David Beckham's visit to Thailand with his family has highlighted a little known gold leaf covered statue of the football star that has been placed at the altar of a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand
Following on from the news that David Beckham will soon be visiting Phuket and Koh Samui with his wife and children, it's also come to light that Beckham has been immortalised at the altar of one of Bangkok's revered Buddhist temples. The gold leaf covered statue of Beckham sporting his sometimes full head of hair has been installed at Wat Pariwas temple in Bangkok's Chinatown since 2000 (according to this webpage) but has now received the full attention of the media with Beckham's visit to Thailand.
UPDATE: I've now been to the David Beckham temple and have a whole bunch of photos and video plus directions on how to get there - follow the link for more.
This original article from 2000 on about the statue's unveiling, also on BBC News covers the reasons for the statue's addition to the temple - the abbot of the wat allowed it because he thinks football is a new kind of religion. Beckham's pose in the statue mimics the garuda, or guardian demons, that can be seen at Thailand's most sacred religious site, the Grand Palace. Every source I've checked is very thin on details about exactly where in Chinatown Wat Pariwas is located, including my two Bangkok maps.
The stories of a statue of David Beckham being worshipped in Japan on Awajishima Island (as claimed by his wife Victoria) turn out to be apocryophal - no-one has actually seen or at least produced a photo of the Japanese Beckham statue, although there was a chocolate David Beckham statue in Tokyo for the World Cup in 2002...
Other Travelhappy posts of interest:
- David Beckham Temple In Bangkok: Where To Find It And What It Looks Like
- David Beckham Goes On Holiday In Thailand’s Phuket
- Bangkok Guide: 55 Tips To Help You The First Time You Travel To Thailand
- Angelina Jolie’s Thailand Spa
- Go Travelling In Thailand!
Make A Comment: ( 3 so far )
3 Responses to “David Beckham Statue Placed At Altar Of Bangkok Temple”
David Beckham Goes On Holiday In Thailand’s Phuket · Thailand Backpacking: Travelhappy.info
July 3rd, 2007
[...] for LA Galaxy, it’s difficult to stop hearing about David Beckham at the moment. But after writing about it a few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to see the golden statue of David Beckham at Wat Pariwas for [...]
David Beckham Temple In Bangkok: Where To Find It And What It Looks Like · Thailand Backpacking: Travelhappy.info
August 16th, 2007
He’s an amazing person and with his celebrity status he’s popular on any field.
William Masek
August 24th, 2007
[...] and Samui. Beckham is almost worshipped like a god in Thailand, demonstrated by the placement of a gold statue of David Beckham at the altar of a Buddhist temple in Bangkok. The Beckhams’ whereabouts is being kept secret, but there is a lot of speculation that the [...]