---
title: Religious Oppression poster, No. 171b (Thai poster distributed in Bangkok)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/religious-oppression-poster-171b-buddha-statue-thai-1954/
description: Two images on a yellow ground. A photograph shows young men in winter coats around a snow or ice statue of a seated Buddha labelled 'BUDDA' in Cyrillic.
section: Collection
---

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3. Religious Oppression poster, No. 171b

[![Religious Oppression poster, No. 171b, 1954 US poster: Two images on a yellow ground](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/religious-oppression-poster-171b-buddha-statue-thai-1954.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/religious-oppression-poster-171b-buddha-statue-thai-1954.jpg)

# Religious Oppression poster, No. 171b (Thai poster distributed in Bangkok)

Two images on a yellow ground. A photograph shows young men in winter coats around a snow or ice statue of a seated Buddha labelled 'BUDDA' in Cyrillic; below it is a stark black-and-white drawing of a pig carrying food, with a figure above. Thai captions say communists dragged a Buddha figure through Moscow and that the drawing is Soviet propaganda attacking Orthodox priests. The tell is card-stacking: two items stand for a systematic campaign against religion.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
[in photograph, Cyrillic:] БУДДА.

พวกคอมมูนิสต์ที่ไร้ศาสนาลากพระพุทธรูปไปตามถนนในกรุงมอสโคว์ วิธีการของ
โซเวียตเพื่อทำลายศาสนานั้นจัดกันอย่างเป็นระเบียบ มีตั้งแต่เที่ยวรังควานสังหาร
นักบวชทุกนิกาย การทำลายวัดวาอารามให้พินาศไป จนถึงวิธีการโฆษณาอย่างชั่วช้า
เช่นในขณะนี้

แผ่นภาพโฆษณานี้โจมตีศาสนากรีกนิกายออร์โธ
ดอกซ์ และวาดภาพของนักบวชให้เห็นเป็น
เหมือนพวกขโมยเที่ยวฉกอาหารเขากิน
```

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

```
[in photograph:] BUDDHA.

Godless Communists drag a Buddha image along the streets in Moscow. The Soviet methods of destroying religion are organised in a systematic way, ranging from hunting down and killing the clergy of every sect, destroying temples and monasteries until they are ruined, to vile propaganda methods such as the present one.

This propaganda picture attacks the Greek Orthodox religion and draws the clergy to look like thieves who go around snatching others' food to eat.
```

Thai spacing reproduced as printed; reading by eye.

[← Religious Oppression poster, No. 171a (Thai poster distributed in Bangkok)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/religious-oppression-poster-171a-masked-priests-thai-1954/) [Religious Oppression poster, No. 171c (Thai poster distributed in Bangkok) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/religious-oppression-poster-171c-priests-china-czech-thai-1954/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [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.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)