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Calls to remove Buddhist statue from Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai – the monument to the suffering of Allied troops in Japanese hands – has been overshadowed by a controversial new Buddhist statue.

A 55ft statue of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, has been built next to the bridge as part of a religious retreat.

Local conservationists described it as "visual pollution", saying that it endangered the symbolism of the site, which is in the western Thai town of Kanchanaburi.

The bridge symbolises the 258-mile Death Railway that claimed the lives of more than 12,000 British, Australian and Dutch prisoners of war.
Read entire article at telegraph.co.uk