The Thai team won the prestigious Sapporo International Snow Sculpture championship title for the third consecutive year with their exhibit of sea turtles in a human hand on Friday.
Veteran ice sculptors Kusol Bunkobsongserm, Amnoaysak Srisuk and Kritsana Wongtes created the three-cubic-metre "Future in our hand" sculpture with the theme of responsible tourism at the 47th Sapporo International Snow Sculpture contest at Odori Park on Hokkaido island.
"Each day, there is a lot of garbage left by us which mostly ends up in the sea. Turtles are one of the marine animals that always suffer from this, as we see in the news. So we want to use this opportunity to remind everyone once again about this global issue," said Mr Kusol, the team leader.
The three Thai sculptors are good friends. Mr Kusol, 55, works at Shangri-La Hotel. Mr Amnoaysak, 56, works at Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel and Mr Kritsana, 49, is an independant sculptor. They practised with Styrofoam in snowless Thailand for about five months before the contest.
Eleven teams contested the event, from Monday to Friday - from Australia, Finland, Indonesia, Lithuania, Macau, Mongolia, Poland, Singapore, Thailand and the United States (2).
Seksan Sripraipan, Tokyo-based director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said Thailand's snow sculpture reflected the impact humans have on the environment and also emphasised Thailand's beautiful marine attractions.
From left, Kusol Bunkobsongserm, Kritsana Wongtes and Amnoaysak Srisuk with their trophy.