Section 360/2: Damaging a Buddha image or religious object in a place of worship
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดทำให้เสียหาย ทำลาย ทำให้เสื่อมค่า หรือทำให้ไร้ประโยชน์ ซึ่งทรัพย์ตามมาตรา ๓๓๕ ทวิ วรรคหนึ่ง ที่ประดิษฐานอยู่ในสถานที่ตามมาตรา ๓๓๕ ทวิ วรรคสอง ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินสิบปี หรือปรับไม่เกินสองแสนบาท หรือทั้งจำทั้งปรับ
English translation
Whoever damages, destroys, causes deterioration in the value of, or renders useless, property under Section 335 bis paragraph one that is enshrined in a place under Section 335 bis paragraph two shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand baht, or both.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 360 bis is an aggravated form of mischief, standing to Section 358 as Section 335 bis stands to theft. It borrows both of its defining elements from Section 335 bis: the property must be of the class described in that Section's paragraph one, being a Buddha image or an object held in religious veneration, and it must be enshrined in a place of the kind described in that Section's paragraph two, being a temple or comparable place of worship. Neither element is defined here, so the Section cannot be read without Section 335 bis. The penalty of up to ten years is far above the three years available for ordinary mischief under Section 358, reflecting the protection of religious property as a matter of public rather than merely private interest. Note that this is a damage offence; taking the object is theft under Section 335 bis.
Why this matters in practice
This provision is charged in cases of vandalism at temples and shrines, and its ten year exposure surprises defendants who assume damage to property is a minor matter. Two points recur. The prosecution must prove the object falls within Section 335 bis paragraph one and was enshrined within paragraph two, so a religious object kept in a private house or a shop is outside this Section and falls back to Section 358. And intoxication is no defence, though it is commonly advanced. For foreign nationals, conduct that would be treated lightly elsewhere, such as climbing on or defacing an image, carries both this criminal exposure and serious immigration consequences.
Cited in 3 Supreme Court decisions (1986 to 1993)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 5199/2533 (1990)
- Decision 799/2529 (1986)
- Decision 3473/2536 (1993)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 90 3
- Section 78 3
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 360/2 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 360/2. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-360-2/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 360/2 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-360-2/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-360-2/"><p>Whoever damages, destroys, causes deterioration in the value of, or renders useless, property under Section 335 bis paragraph one that is enshrined in a place under Section 335 bis paragraph two shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or a fine not exceeding…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 360/2 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-360-2/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.