Please refrain from using words like Buddhist monks, buddhism and buddhists.......its very different from the Thai Buddhism, Thai Buddhists Monks and Thai Buddhists which is seen here. Thais have "bastardised" almosts anything they come into contact with....including Hinduism now withthe rise of Brahmic Ritauls, The workship o Hindu Gods like Lord Ganesha etc. They also completely rewrite their histories to suit them. Nothing more to say .

I have seen monks touch prepubescent children before in public and the locals never seemed to be taken aback. In this photo he appears to have his hand on his knee adjacent to the palm-up hand of the child. Am I the only one who does not find the photo particularly scandalous?

I also see nothing wrong in the photo. Even if he was in his private quarters, if there was another monk in there with him when he was with the females, he is still ok with the rules. There's a big difference between touching and touching. Some touching almost always happens with monks, can't escape it all. I used to tap younger girls, pre-teenagers, on the head with a chant book or a bamboo back scratcher I carried. Never with my hand. And say a blessing for them. I've seen monks use a bamboo stick to trace lines in women's palms while doing palmistry. Touching happens. It's the touching with intent that gets monks in trouble.

So if it is the intent that is important, can a Thai monk touch a ladyboy with "intent" because it is not a female, even if it looks, acts and smells like a female? He can't get into trouble for that....

At Least it is ok to write "<deleted> Ghost" on Thaivisa, even if we still can't write "<deleted>"

The world can be confusing sometimes....

Amazing Thailand. Astrology is reading palms now,is it,according to some posters? I thought astrology had something to do with stars and stuff. Silly me.

No, but astronomy does.

Oh.... don't be silly...... Astrology is the study of asteroids. Everybody knows that..... and they come in two varieties ... dumb assteroids or smart assteroids and they both started as a little pebble and got on steroids..... Look up it.

I have seen monks touch prepubescent children before in public and the locals never seemed to be taken aback. In this photo he appears to have his hand on his knee adjacent to the palm-up hand of the child. Am I the only one who does not find the photo particularly scandalous?

Apparantly... YES.

No such thing as buddhism in Thailand, as the Thais have corrupted it (like everything else) until it is no longer what it was when they started.

Thailand is no longer a buddhist country. Today Thailand is bahtist.

there are thousands of similar stories goes unpublished in Thailand.

If there are thousands of similar unpublished stories how can you know about them? They're unpublished, do you have some kind of 6th sense?