Government officials in Chon Buri have received complaints about tourists, mostly Chinese and Vietnamese, affixing stickers on the premises of Wat Nong Yai, a century-old temple in Pattaya, out of the belief that doing so will bring them good luck.
Following complaints made to local media, reporters have visited the temple best known among tourists for its well-preserved historic wood at Phra Ubosot hall.
Tourists generally arrive as part of guided tours and most of them carry a white round-shaped sticker with a picture of a red lotus on it. Before leaving the temple, they place the sticker whereever they can, including trees, and even pillars of the hall.
Thongdi Saeli, a caretaker at the temple, said the stickers are given to the tourists by their guides who tell them that placing the stickers inside the temple's premises would bring them good luck.
Mr Thongdi said staff have been trying to remove the stickers. However, they simply cannot keep pace, given the large number of foreign visitors who visit the temple each day.
The company has set aside a corner where the tourists can place their stickers but most visitors choose to ignore it, he said.
The staff are now planning plan to put up a large board with text encouraging visitors to put their stickers only on the board. Also, more staff is likely to be recruited to help peel off stickers which now engulf the temple grounds.
