A woman in the Philippines spent over four years praying to what she thought was a Buddha statue, only to find out it was actually a figure of Shrek. She had bought the green statue from a local shop and kept it in her prayer space, offering daily devotion without realizing the truth.
The mistake came to light when a friend visited and took a closer look at the statue. They pointed out the familiar cartoon face and realized it wasn’t Buddha at all, it was the big green ogre from the Shrek movies.
No one’s sure how the woman reacted, but the story blew up online and turned into one of those viral situations people can’t stop talking about. Shrek, with his big round face and calm expression, isn’t that far visually from the look of Buddha statues.
Some people laughed, others pointed out how strong her faith must’ve been if she stayed that devoted for so long. But mostly it just shows how confusing things can get if you’re relying on appearance and not history or context.
In a different but related story, something similar happened at a temple in Mathura, India. Devotees had been drinking water that was dripping from an elephant statue, thinking it was holy water or charan amrit.
Turned out, the water was coming from an air conditioner that had been installed inside the statue. A temple representative later said: “We respect the faith people have in God, but it’s essential to inform them. The water they believe to be ‘Charan Amrit’ is just water from the AC.”
Even after people were told it wasn’t safe, some of them kept drinking it anyway, and a few were even seen collecting it in cups.