Locals cry foul as farang climbs on sacred Samui landmark

[fasteddie]

2 hours ago, coppywriter said:

Stonehenge is just rock but you can't climb that either.

Stonehenge is not just a rock, grow up.

[Wake Up]

Reading some of these posts makes one wonder why many of you are living in Thailand and makes one wonder why Thailand allows some of you to live here. I would be embarrassed if my Thai friends read some of these comments. We are invited guests in another country and need to be respectful of our host country and their laws, customs and beliefs just as we would appreciate others to do the same in our home countries. 

[Time Traveller]

6 hours ago, thai3 said:

It's just a rock, how stupid can the outraged get?  I thought it was going to be a Buddha image or the like 

Now you're being racist

[joecoolfrog]

Sacred rock but nobody could be bothered to maintain the warning sign! I would have more sympathy for the 'outraged ' locals if they looked a bit closer to home for the source of most of their problems.

[MiKT]

In 20 odd years I never saw a no climbing sign, but you would have to be a bit doolally to consider it.

 

This is how sacred the locals think it is!

[Johpa]

Admittedly it has been a long time since my last visit to Samui, but back in the day there was nothing sacred about these rocks, no orange cloth wrapped around like some Bodhi tree, not even a spirit house nearby.

[Guitar God]

If it's such a sacred place, why the heck are they selling caramels there?

 

I've never been to any other sacred places here where you have to remain quiet and respectful, take off your shoes, rent trousers if you're wearing shorts and then have someone come up and ask " how about some caramels, 100 baht a bag, three bags for 250?".

[cheapcanuck]

9 hours ago, thai3 said:

It's just a rock, how stupid can the outraged get?  I thought it was going to be a Buddha image or the like 

You just don't get it...

[cheapcanuck]

8 hours ago, Foreign Jim said:

A 'sacred' rock in the shape of a penis with a crevasse like a vagina that locals worship:  that rock is just begging to be climbed.  Who gives a toss?

I do...

[KIWIBATCH]

if its so bloody sacred a site....why do thais (the majority)...and others throw there bloody rubbish everywhere over and around the rock and into the bloody sea surrounding the rock.....selective sacredness...ok to throw your trash...icecream wrappers...etc etc...but not ok to climb it.....put a bloody decent sign in as many languages as is possible on and around the rock....

[whaleboneman]

8 hours ago, happy Joe said:

In Paris at Pere Lachaise cemetery Victor Noir tomb is daily climbed by women in need of love.

 

These practices at the limit of decency lasted for over a century.

 

Well, for girls it is acceptable, but when they are males as in Ko Samui, one fears to discover the horrible truth ...

 

 

From the look of the shine on his pants, I would say he's pleasured more women than Keith Richards.

[thai006]

respect thai culture

[Jonmarleesco]

'Jirasak Wannabuan of the local authority went with other officials to the area on Monday and found that a sign forbidding climbing had fallen into disrepair.' What a surprise. And it was, no doubt, printed in Thai. Besides, it says all there is to say when the media points out that the locals worship a rock-shaped penis, and one shaped - purportedly - like a vagina.

[fasteddie]

32 minutes ago, Jonmarleesco said:

'Jirasak Wannabuan of the local authority went with other officials to the area on Monday and found that a sign forbidding climbing had fallen into disrepair.' What a surprise. And it was, no doubt, printed in Thai. Besides, it says all there is to say when the media points out that the locals worship a rock-shaped penis, and one shaped - purportedly - like a vagina.

The only thing they worship is the money.

[callaway]

Truth be known the vendor would care less about the rock. All she would care about is the money the tourists bring there when they come to see it. She basically said that in her statement. Its all about the baht. If they were such caring souls they would not litter so much in their national parks or their country. Sign falls down and illegible and they have outrage at a tourist. Maybe vent some of that outrage at the government department that is responsible for the signage so people are informed.

[innocenthai]

locals have nothing else to do but cry ? why not finding a job or trying to give proper education to your kids for example by looking at their homework and what they do at night ?

[Docno]

10 hours ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

thailand loves to blame foreigners for everything and i guess many other countries around the world do as well. in some ways it is being patriotic believing that ones own people are perfect and foreigners are not, which of course is a little misguided. samui locals might be better off getting upset about the massing of trash that will soon get into their ground water.

 

So are you suggesting that there wouldn't be outrage if a Thai had climbed the rock? I suspect you'd be wrong... Maybe it's not about blaming foreigners, but some foreigner visitors come to Thailand without it cross their minds that a rock might have more significance to Thais than it would in their own country.

 

[Docno]

Yep, and you would be arrested if you stood on Plymouth Rock in the US. There may be similar places in other western countries as well.  [Hey, Stonehenge is just some rocks tilted upright ... I suspect it would be illegal to climb those too].

[Stardust314]

Another " quality" tourist from western countries ....   please dude, try respect thailand

[berybert]

12 hours ago, Kerryd said:

It sounds like they need to make it a lot more obvious that the rock(s) are off-limits. People these days (well, not just these days) are far more concerned about their own self-interests than anyone else's and seem to have fewer qualms about doing things that previous generations would have almost never considered.

 

Like that American scout leader who pushed over one of those ancient boulders that was perched on top of a smaller stone pedestal that took millions of years to create (and then claimed, after he got caught of course, that he was trying to protect people that might get hurt if that boulder ever fell on it's own. Naturally. Maybe another million or so years from now.)

 

Or like that kid that defaced a 5,000 year old rock carving in Norway because he wanted to make it easier to see.

Or the woman that is (now) banned from every National Park in the US for defacing protected rocks and spray painting her social media name on them. 

Or the people that go to ancient temples and take lewd photographs.

 

Where I grew up as a kid, we used to have to ride a barge (pushed by an old tugboat) 36 miles up a lake to get to our community. In the summertime the barge used to stop at one spot where you could look at (really, really old but probably not "ancient") rock paintings that could only be seen from the water. The paintings told the story of Blackfoot raiding parties that used to cross the Rocky Mountains in the early spring to raid the Shuswaps for women (and horses eventually). (It was said that the Shuswaps were lazy and easy to defeat, but they had beautiful women). 

They would then travel back across the Rockies to the prairies before the winter snows blocked the passes. Back when they were still using canoes to get up to the top end of the lake, the Blackfoot would stop at that one spot and paint the story of their raid (or raids) on the rock wall.

People on the barge would take pictures while the kids swam in the lake and then 15-20 minutes later the barge would continue on.

The paintings were there for who knows how long (possibly hundreds of years) until word got around and people on houseboats would travel to that spot. 

 

What happened next ? Well of course, taking a picture just wasn't good enough for some people so they started chipping off pieces of the rocks. Apparently (word of mouth rumours) more of the paintings ended up in the lake than into people's hands as most people were just using rocks or hammers to bash the paintings while trying to break off a nice hunk. It was far enough away from any people that no one would ever know you'd ever been there (even now). Naturally, there's nothing left of it now so another small piece of history has disappeared forever.

 

Never doubt that there are people who are willing to purposefully destroy all manner of history for their own selfish interests. 

 

 

 

 

 

How long does it take for graffiti to become art ? You along with many others would be up in arms if you saw someone painting rocks in the middle of nowhere.

[Sappho]

I lived on the beach near those rocks in the late 80's and was there in the early 90's too.  I lived there with Thai artists.  People were always walking over and around those rocks-tourists and Thais alike.  I didn't know they no longer allowed you to climb on them.  It's too bad they have become such a "thing".  They were quietly respected and it was wonderful to just come across them.  I guess the amounts of tourists-Thai and foreign alike going to see them have grown so much that they have decided to put more precautions around-and it allows entrepreneurial people to make money at the same time :-)

They served mushroom omelets in those days too and we smoked ganja pretty openly...

Things change.......

[Reigntax]

11 hours ago, Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere said:

If a Penis and a vagina is not sacred then I don't know what else is... Lol

 

How would us aliens feel if it was our cock rock and some of the locals were climbing all over. We would love it after all thats why many are here.

[kannot]

14 hours ago, sahibji said:

 

thai3

it is the belief that is important. if these rocks are considered sacred, they are and no one should defy that.

no matter how incredibly  dumb and stupid that "belief" is.............. CRAP

[alofthailand]

15 hours ago, thai3 said:

It's just a rock, how stupid can the outraged get?  I thought it was going to be a Buddha image or the like 

Many natural formations are special to local people in many areas in many parts of the world. The desire to conquer, climb on, despoiled is awfulto see. It is not up to us to queryor challenge such local beliefs. He is a vandal and  hooligan who should have been punished.

[kannot]

4 hours ago, innocenthai said:

locals have nothing else to do but cry ? why not finding a job or trying to give proper education to your kids for example by looking at their homework and what they do at night ?

easier to  give them a smartphone and leave them to it.

Sadly I witnessed this travesty when a visiting relative and her vile brat came to see my Wife recently. 3-4 year old did nothing except sit with a phone ALL DAY, Mother the same, yet another pasty white faced  looking no brain taking yet another stupid dumb ass selfie showing he world her "incredible lifestyle, the reality is she earns 8k a  month and  has not  one baht, borrowed money for a car ( they now cant pay back) but has  no insurance, tax or driving licence, many more like them.

[arithai12]

is in the shape of a penis

 

Not of mine, thanks.

[Fireyfish]

16 hours ago, thai3 said:

It's just a rock, how stupid can the outraged get?  I thought it was going to be a Buddha image or the like 

 

typical arrogance displayed by many farangs .... respect where you are, respect local cuilture & traditions, especially if you have no understanding ....

[Blackheart1916]

1 hour ago, alofthailand said:

Many natural formations are special to local people in many areas in many parts of the world. The desire to conquer, climb on, despoiled is awfulto see. It is not up to us to queryor challenge such local beliefs. He is a vandal and  hooligan who should have been punished.

But this has never been a local belief, for at least the last 20 years, until 2 days ago. 

[Fireyfish]

7 minutes ago, Blackheart1916 said:

But this has never been a local belief, for at least the last 20 years, until 2 days ago. 

bullshit ... I was told by locals that the rocks had spiritual significance when I first visited Samui in 1979

[douglasspade]

17 hours ago, thai3 said:

It's just a rock, how stupid can the outraged get?  I thought it was going to be a Buddha image or the like 

Yeah, I got to agree. Is this a statue, a landmark or a temple? That rock in the photo kind off resemble the end of a penis.