In 2010 two Sri Lankan Muslim traders were given suspended jail sentences for selling keyrings containing an image of Buddha.

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The government buildings may have moved but the city, renamed Luang Prabang when the royal image of Buddha, the Pra Bang, took up residence there, remains the nucleus of Buddhist study in the country.

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His image appears on every single one of his album covers - except the UK release of The Buddha Of Suburbia.

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