MagpieGoose

Inside of temple

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In terms of level of theming, this is certainly not just next level but like ten levels up and almost certainly second to few or none...
 
Very detailed indeed, but is it somewhat disrespectful that a religion is being reduced to a zoo's theming? Those are real (or very accurately reproduced) Buddhist idols being displayed. I don't think any zoo would incorporate statues of Jesus in a European church-themed exhibit, no?
 
@Zooish For some reason it does seem like the three Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) almost always escape from this kind of display. Apart from, say, a cross or a depiction or figure of the Virgin Mary in something like a recreation of an old farmhouse, I've yet to see displays relating to these religions, and certainly I haven't seen anything like the church example you gave.

I think there's a good reason for it - it would just be way too controversial to do something like that. It would probably raise a huge controversy if someone did it and it might just lead to vandalism or even violence. So I don't think anyone with some common sense would touch something like that, not even with a hundred foot pole. For some reason the Eastern religions seem to be fairly safe to be used as decorations and cultural elements to create an atmosphere.

That said, at least some of the temples at Pairi Daiza - the grey stone temples in the elephant area - are actually used by the Balinese people living in Europe for their rituals (see the article below, with a clip - in Dutch though) so I assume they paid attention to cultural sensitivity at least with regards to those temples.

400 Balinezen vieren feestdag in dierenpark Pairi Daiza

To be honest, I'm not really sure how to feel about these cultural/religious displays and whether they are disrespectful or not. All I can say is that I wish they had invested some of the money and some of the space taken up by all these temples into better animal exhibits. I think animal exhibits should still be the focus of a zoo - and in some areas of Pairi Daiza they definitely are not - and I think I would probably prefer some kind of botanical or horticultural display over excessive cultural theming outside of the exhibits.
 

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Category
Pairi Daiza
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MagpieGoose
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Device
Panasonic DC-FZ82
Aperture
ƒ/2.8
Focal length
3.6 mm
Exposure time
1/60 second(s)
ISO
200
Flash
Off, did not fire
Filename
P1120289.JPG
File size
8.4 MB
Date taken
Tue, 23 April 2019 12:01 PM
Dimensions
4896px x 3672px

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