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Gaining merit is big in the Buddhist world view. Exemplary deeds can help insure you won't come back as something loathsome and horrible in your next incarnation.

You can always find someone selling small patches of gold leaf at the entrances to temples. Applying these to statues of the Buddha is one of many ways you can gain merit. The small Buddhas pictured here have been so covered with gold leaf you can barely make out their features.