Old photos of meditation practices that surfaced in social media posts falsely claimed they depicted the casualties of the 7.7 tremors that hit Southeast Asian countries in late March, killing more than 3,000 people. Photos taken at the meditation camp date back to at least 2019.
“The Buddhist community is mourning the earthquakes in Myanmar, Myanmar and Thailand. Buddhist devotees and monks are no longer among us. A heartfelt tribute.” The Hindi Facebook post reads the Hindi Facebook post on March 29, 2025.
Two of the pictures show monks lying on the ground, while one-third are in the same position in civilian costumes.
Myanmar’s state media said that in the devastating earthquake of the March 28 earthquake, the death toll exceeded 3,300, and many people in the country still have no shelter because their houses were destroyed or feared of further collapse (reserved link).
Screenshot of fake post, taken on April 8, 2025
The same collage appears with similar claims on x AND Facebook.
Comments from users mourning the dead show that they believe the photos show the victims of the disaster.
One user commented: “Very sad news. The losses of the Buddhist community are irreparable.”
Another user mourned the incident and said: “I would like to express my sincere condolences to the deceased.”
But these photos predated the earthquake and showed meditation practice.
Reverse image search on Google found photos shared separately on Facebook page called Theinngu 32 and read “Meditation of Lying” with Myanmar language subtitles (Archive link).
According to the website linked in the introduction of this page, it belongs to the Buddhist meditation center at the Myanmar headquarters (archive link).
The first photo of the monk lying on the ground was shared on January 27, 2020, and the second was posted on October 5, 2020, with one third of civilian clothing personnel posting on October 14, 2019 (here, links to archives here and here).
Screenshots compare fake posts (left) and photos posted by the Meditation Center (right)
The administrator of the Facebook page “Theinngu 32” confirmed that the photos have nothing to do with the recent Myanmar earthquake.
“These photos show practice of lies performed in the past 10 days of meditation camps,” they told AFP on April 2.
AFP examined the distorted visual effects of facts related to the Myanmar earthquake.
