An Italian tourist is being deported today after Mandalay residents told police that he has a tattoo of the Buddha on his leg, according to authorities involved in the case.
Residents of Chanayethazan Township reported the tourist to police when they saw him wandering around the city.
The police approached Mr Molia Giannunzio Michela, 34, and saw the Buddha tattoo on his left leg, reported Popular News.
The local police chief, the deputy immigration officer, officers from the tourist police force and township administrators went to his hotel on the evening of November 7.
Mr Michela has been sent to Yangon and will be deported early tomorrow morning.
There is little tolerance for unfamiliar uses of Buddha images in Myanmar. A Spanish tourist was deported from Myanmar in July when monks in Bagan spotted a tattoo depicting the Buddha on his leg.
In 2015, a bar manager from New Zealand spent 10 months in jail for ‘insulting religion’ by using a Buddha image to promote an event at a Yangon bar.
A Canadian tourist and practicing Buddhist was detained in 2014, also for having a leg tattoo of the Buddha.
