Jakarta - About 100 Indonesian Buddhist students rallied outside the Buddha Bar on Thursday, demanding it be closed for what they see as the sacrilegious use of the name. The protestors burned incense and symbolically sealed the bar in central Jakarta with a yellow line.
The students gave the Jakarta administration a week to close the bar, a hip Paris-based franchise of restaurants, and threatened to stage larger protests if their demand was not met.
"If the Buddha Bar is not closed, there will be other bars using names such as Mohammed Bar or Jesus Bar," a Buddhist activist, Widodo, was quoted as saying by Detik.com news website.
Jakarta became the first South-east Asian city to have a Buddha Bar in December, joining major international cities like London, New York and Dubai.
