Frankly, why would it? Because, weirdly, I heard nothing about the differences between Theravada, Boran Kamatthana, the esoteric Hindu-Buddhist blends of maritime Southeast Asia and Cambodia and the still closely related Mahayana beliefs from neighboring Vietnam, who all have their own iconography, during my own school education... just as an example. Naively, I believed that the statue of the Buddha is the actual main pictoral reference, while it is actually just one of newer historical times (before it was footprints, stupas, etc) -- and even where it is, how many of us can differentiate between Siddharta (in its many different postures), Avalokiteshvara or Maitreya, just based on their specific markings? How many can differentiate between Mae Thorani, Nang Kwak, Mae Phosop, central elements of folk belief in Thailand? How many know what iconography is related to the Thai-Brahmanic forms of Phra Prom, Phra Ram or Phra In? Makes you wonder, just because we come from a Western society, many of us think we are quite automatically educated, when in truth the knowledge blind spots many of us have, are gaping holes -- even after living right here in Thailand for years or decades -- make so many Westerners give the impression of being close to naive (and all-too-often even analphabetic) ignorants.
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