Pop Goes the Buddha

In the West, religion and popular culture usually don't mix and when they do, it's often considered blasphemous. In Thailand, however, Buddhism and pop culture go hand in hand. Here the religion is so integrated into everyday life that most Thai people don't consider images of the Buddha surrounded by plastic toys and action figures to be absurd at all. The driver of this taxi told me that he wants to collect even more cartoon and anime characters to display next to his Buddha statue.