---
title: Communist Threat to Religion poster (Thai, Bangkok)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/communist-threat-to-religion-thai-1954/
description: A Thai two-part poster. The yellow upper half shows a seated Buddha image on an altar and kneeling monks, with a text on hearing the Dharma.
section: Collection
---

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3. Communist Threat to Religion poster (Thai, Bangkok)

[![Communist Threat to Religion poster, 1954 US poster: A Thai two-part poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/communist-threat-to-religion-thai-1954.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/communist-threat-to-religion-thai-1954.jpg)

# Communist Threat to Religion poster (Thai, Bangkok)

A Thai two-part poster. The yellow upper half shows a seated Buddha image on an altar and kneeling monks, with a text on hearing the Dharma. The red lower half is headed 'The Communists are people without religion' and shows three images: a Buddha statue hauled through a Moscow street, a cartoon of a Buddha figure above top-hatted capitalists, and a film still of a staged Buddha scene, each captioned as Communist mockery of Buddhism. The tell is card-stacking, with a sacred-versus-desecrated contrast built from selected images, and name-calling in the headline.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Text on the object

Original (Thai) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
การฟังธรรมตามกาลนั้นเป็นมงคลอันสูงสุด
ศาสนา หรือ ธรรมะเป็นอาหารของใจ กายต้องการอาหารคือข้าวฉันใด ใจก็ต้องการอาหารคือธรรมะฉันนั้นเหมือนกัน และธรรมะเป็นอาหารที่สำคัญ กว่าข้าวเสียอีก เพราะธรรมะคอยค้ำจุนจิตใจมนุษย์ให้สูงขึ้น ธรรมะย่อมคุ้มครองรักษาผู้ปฏิบัติธรรมให้ได้รับความอยู่เย็นเป็นสุขเสมอ ผู้ใดชอบธรรมะ ผู้นั้นเป็นคนเจริญ ผู้ใดชังธรรมะ ผู้นั้นเป็นคนเสื่อมจากความดี.
พวกคอมมิวนิสต์คือคนไร้ศาสนา
[caption] พวกคอมมิวนิสต์ลบหลู่พุทธศาสนาอย่างร้ายแรง ด้วยการลากหุ่นพระพุทธองค์ไปตามถนนหลวงที่กรุงมอสโคว์
พวกคอมมิวนิสต์เกลียดชังศาสนา พวกคอมมิวนิสต์เกลียดชังคำสอนของพระพุทธองค์ พวกคอมมิวนิสต์กำลังทำลายล้าง และบั่นทอนความเคารพต่อศาสนาของเราทั้งทางตรงและทางอ้อม ภาพเหล่านี้แสดงถึงการเหยียบย่ำศาสนาของพวกคอมมิวนิสต์---พวกคนไม่มีศาสนา!
[caption] พวกคอมมิวนิสต์ประนามพระพุทธศาสนาว่าเป็นรากฐานของฝ่ายนายทุน
[caption] พวกคอมมิวนิสต์เหยียดหยามพระพุทธศาสนา ด้วยการสร้างภาพยนตร์ตลกเรื่อง "พระพุทธเจ้าพูดสาย" ถ่ายทำในโซเวียต
[Cyrillic on statue base] БУДДА
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Hearing the Dharma at the proper time is the highest blessing. Religion, or the Dharma, is food for the heart: as the body needs food in the form of rice, so the heart needs the Dharma as its food, and the Dharma is more important than rice, because it sustains and raises the human mind. The Dharma protects those who practise it and gives them lasting peace; whoever loves the Dharma prospers and whoever hates it declines from virtue.
The Communists are people without religion.
[caption] The Communists gravely insult Buddhism by dragging a Buddha statue along a main street in Moscow.
The Communists hate religion. The Communists hate the Buddha's teachings. The Communists are destroying, directly and indirectly, respect for our religion. These pictures show the Communists' trampling of religion: people without religion!
[caption] The Communists denounce Buddhism as the foundation of the capitalist side.
[caption] The Communists mock Buddhism by making a comic film, 'The Buddha Speaks Late', filmed in the Soviet Union.
[Cyrillic on statue base] BUDDHA
```

Thai text read from the scan; spacing normalised. The film title in the last caption is read as given and may be imperfect.

[← Religious Oppression poster, No. 171c (Thai poster distributed in Bangkok)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/religious-oppression-poster-171c-priests-china-czech-thai-1954/) [Operation Freedom poster No. 2: Di-cư vào Nam là chọn Tự-Do (Migrating south is choosing freedom; Vietnamese poster distributed in Saigon) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/operation-freedom-poster-no-2-migrating-south-vietnamese-saigon-1954/)

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- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
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