Altered Focus: Burma from Hot Knees Media on Vimeo.

Some people are less thrilled than TMcG is about the deck. Blogger/activist (and friend) Heidiminx thinks it’s “disrespectful to the max” to depict His Holiness there, especially since most skaters are likely to grind the bottom of the deck. She’s encouraging online friends to write the company and share their thoughts, though she reports that “When I left a comment on their page that this was disrespectful, they deleted it.”

So what do you think? Is it disrespectful? Sure, it’s not what an adherent of Tibetan Buddhism would do, but it seems (to me, at least) like a gesture/idea made out of respect. Personally, I think it’s cool that Skull feels it’s worth depicting such “True Champions of Justice” — it’s more meaningful than much of the usual skate-deck art fare. Likewise, TMcG has followed up with a comment from Skull that seems to satisfy her sense that her purchase wasn’t ill-placed. Check it out and join the discussion here.

Via Ananova:

Photographs of a monk skateboarding inside a historic temple have caused controversy in China. [...]

“Monks should seek quietness and riding a skateboard is such a contradictory thing to Buddhist life,” said [internet commenter].

However, a spokesman for the temple said that the outside world did not understand the life of a contemporary monk.

“People get their impressions from TV or movies, where monks are praying all day long, without any motivation or desire,” he said.

“But these days monks also enjoy sports like badminton, table tennis and skateboarding in the spare time, as well as praying.

“They even use the internet and mobile phones to promote Buddhism. This is not contradictory to Buddhism but actually is part of the Buddhist spirit.”

Right on.

Her look sorta reminds one of the “Dharmagrrl” logo (as seen here, or here), only with more — and much hairier — limbs.

If you want the wheels (they’re for longboards, not regular skateboards), you can find ‘em here (among other places).