Four aspects of the subject:

• tourist attraction
• Thai religion
• western meditation centers
• an individual spiritual path to nirvana

Buddhism as a tourist attraction

• obligatory taking off the shoes before entering
• cheerful monks, some of them speak English
• Phuket temples: Wat Chalong between Phuket Town and Chalong; the eldest man living Luang Pu Supha 114 years old; Big Buddha on the highest hill in the south part of the island, perfect viewpoints, good library

Buddhism as a religion

• popular believes are superstitions, contradictories to Buddha teachings
• strong influence of the clergy, however without political consequences
• Buddhism is unaggressive, tolerant, no logical conflict with science nor sexual customs neither

Buddhism as a meditation

• meditation centers use a word Buddhist but their links with the religion are superfluous
• kind of New Age hotels, some of them are mixture of luxury with spiritual program

Buddhism as a way to awaking

• Theravada tradition
• places to go: forest monasteries like Suan Mokkh or Dipabhavan on Koh Samui
• in some places teachings are also in English however the level is not always satisfactory