Pope Francis met with Thailand's supreme Buddhist patriarch on Thursday in a gilded Bangkok temple on the first full day of his Asia tour aimed at promoting religious harmony.

This is the pontiff's first visit to Buddhist-majority Thailand - where just over 0.5 percent of the population are Catholics - before he jets off to Japan on Saturday.

He is pushing a message of inter-faith peace on a four-day visit that will see him lead a mass later Thursday for tens of thousands of faithful from across Southeast Asia.