Jason Lee

This is the beginning of this sense of invincibility

There's, like, the party in the backyard, and then there's, like, the few people in the house. Beyoncé was never in the backyard. She's in the house with Jay-Z. She's in the house with the kids, you know? We didn't get to smell the same air as Beyoncé.

People like me who went to the regular Diddy parties, we had our chicken and waffles, we sipped our Ciroc, we danced, and we went home.

This is the beginning of this sense of invincibility.

There's like the party in the backyard, and then there's like the few people in the house. Beyoncé was never in the backyard. She's in the house with Jay-Z. She's in the house with the kids, you know? We didn't get to smell the same air as Beyoncé.

People like me who went to the regular Diddy parties, we had our chicken and waffles, we sipped our Ciroc, we danced, and we went home.

It's believed to be the tooth of Buddha. So it's, you know, considered very sacred among Buddhists. Just to disappoint you, there are many tooth of Buddha that's been claimed by multiple museums and temples. So this is just one of many. And it's originally housed in Lingguang Temple in Beijing in the Chinese capital.

Now, the Chinese government loaned this to Thailand in December to commemorate the birthday of the Thai king. And it was also to mark the 50th anniversary of the official relationship between the two countries. Now, while on display in Bangkok, in a temple in Bangkok, thousands of visitors came to see the artifact to pay their homage because Thailand is a very deeply Buddhist country.

So they want to get a glimpse of this artifact. And as you mentioned, it was flown back to China. after a ceremony which was attended by officials and monks.

Well, we don't have DNA result to really say if this is Buddha's tooth. I mean, this is what's believed by the Buddhists who follow the religion.

So China sees Southeast Asia sort of as its periphery and has been increasing its influence over the region over the past few years in direct competition with the traditional influence superpower in the region, the United States, which has influence over it, although the U.S. is located in North America. And this has brought some positive impacts.

You know, China is the largest trading partner of Southeast Asia. It's also the largest investor in infrastructure in the region. But this has also led to tensions, most notably in the South China Sea, where Beijing has lots of territorial and maritime disputes. But unlike some of its neighbours who has these disputes with China, Thailand has a relatively stable relations with China.

So this loaning of the Buddhist who appears to be China using its cultural artefact as a way of trying to bring one of its most prominent regional partners, Thailand, closer to its sphere of influence.

This is the beginning of this sense of invincibility.

There's, like, the party in the backyard, and then there's, like, the few people in the house. Beyoncé was never in the backyard. She's in the house with Jay-Z. She's in the house with the kids, you know? We didn't get to smell the same air as Beyoncé.

People like me who went to the regular Diddy parties, we had our chicken and waffles, we sipped our Ciroc, we danced, and we went home.