Thai Culture

Written by Administrator Wednesday, 08 July 2009 14:01

Thai Culture

The majority of the Thai population are Buddhists and of significant importance within their culture is the Buddhist temple, or known in Thailand as ‘Wat’. The Wat is often the heart of the village, there is usually a small school for young children, people will go to the Wat for certain rites and ceremonies, and important feasts and festivals will be held here.

The temple fairs are quite traditional, you can throw darts at balloons to win a naff prize, play bingo using beer bottle tops or ride on the bumper cars.
Families are very important to Thais; traditionally elder parents are taken care of by their children. Children are taught to show respect to their elders especially parents, teachers and Buddhist monks. Old people are in general respected, not always because they are kind and wise and the foundation of all knowledge and strength, just because they are old!

The traditional Thai greeting is known as the ‘wai’, put your hands together palm to palm and bow your head. If you are ‘wai-ed’ to, then it is polite to return the wai, unless it is to a child.

Thai people love the royal family, especially the King, whatever you do, do not say anything rude or negative against them unless you want to really insult and offend. When the national anthem is played Thai’s will stand to attention, if you visit the cinema the anthem is played before the movie starts and everyone stands in respect. Respect is also shown to religious leaders and priests. Although, as westerners, we might find this behaviour odd, be aware that Thai people do it out of respect, they love the King!

Thais are known to be non-confrontational, which can be pretty frustrating at times. If you try and confront a Thai about something they will probably smile at you or tell you ‘mai pen rai’ (no problem). If a Thai person shows anger they are said to be losing face, so if you are angry or irritated try not to show it or you will just be smiled at and then they will carry on as if nothing has happened. Faced with anger, stress or even danger, Thais will smile! Road rage in Thailand….smile!

As you travel around Phuket you will notice what look like bird houses in the yards of most homes, outside hotels and business’s, restaurants and even bars. These are in fact spirit houses. The Thai’s believe that if you build a new house you could disturb the spirits who live on the property. So, to protect themselves from any harm or mischief, a spirit house is provided for the spirits to live in. The owner of the land will light incense sticks and give offerings of flowers and fruit and rice to keep the spirits happy. Spirit houses can also be seen at a dangerous or sharp bend in the road, the idea is that if the spirits who haunt the place are given a home they will not endanger the drivers who go past. If a bad accident happened on a particular stretch of road and resulted in someone’s death a spirit house will be found there to appease the anguished spirits of the people who died.