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Thailand
Culture
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Thailand Culture |
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Thailand is located at the meeting
point of the two great cultural
systems of Asia - Chinese and Indian.
In everyday life, Chinese culture
has mixed very well with the Thai,
whereas in Thai has mixed which
has been based mainly on Buddhism
and Brahmanism, India has exerted
a strong influence Thai culture
can be divided into 3 aspects linguistic
culture, court culture, and traditional
culture.
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Linguistic Culture |
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The Thai language, or Phasa Thai,
basically consists of monosyllable
words, whose meanings are complete
by themselves. Its alphabet was
created by King Ramkham haeng the
Great in 1283 by modelling it on
the ancient Indian alphabets of
Sanskrit and Pali through the medium
of the old Khmer characters After
a history of over 700 years, the
Thai alphabet today comprises 44
letters (including 2 obsolete ones),
representing 20 consonant phonemes,
and 15 vowel signs, denoting 22
vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs.
As Thai is a tonal language with
five different tones, it often confuses
foreigners who are unused to this
kind of language. For example, they
have difficulty in distinguishing
these 3 words from each other —
(suea, with rising tone (suea, low
tone) and (suea, falling tone) which
means a tiger, a mat and clothes
respectively.
Like most languages of the world,
the Thai language is a complicated
mixture of several sources. Many
Thai words used today were derived
from Pali, Sanskrit, Khmer, Malay,
English and Chinese.
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Court Culture |
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Court culture refers to the conception
of beauty, perfection and harmony
in the fine arts, including pain-ting,
sculpture, architecture, literature,
drama and music. In the old days
most of these originated in or received
the patronage of the royal court
and nobility. Most of the works
served the Buddhist religion. Their
Styles were influenced by the Indians
through the Mons and Khmers, and
then were blended and developed
in unique forms recognized as Thai.
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Painting: Classical
Thai painting is mostly
confined to mural paintings
inside Buddhist temples
and palaces. They are idealistic
and the themes frequently
depicted are those related
to Buddhism, such as the
Buddha's life stories, stories
of the three worlds (heaven,
earth and hell), and also
those concerning customs
and traditions. The subjects
of the paintings reflect
different purposes: to beautify
and dignify the places of
worship, to promote Buddhism,
and to educate people through
pictures.
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Architecture: Apart
from the royal palace buildings,
classical Thai architecture
can be found in monastic
monuments — pagodas and
temples — which have been
the focal points of Thai
community activities for
centuries. Admitting Indian,
Khmer and other influences
such as Chinese and Burmese,
Thai architects developed
their own distinctive style
of sloping multi-tiered
rooftops and soaring pointed
towers, intricately ornamented
with carved wood and stucco,
gilded lacquer work, mother-of-pearl
inlay Chinese porcelain
fragments and colour glass
mosaic Under the tropical
sun, these buildings give
out an artistic harmony
of flamboyance and serenity.
Examples of Thai architecture
are seen in wat Phra Kaeo,
Wat Pho, Wat Suthat, the
Grand Palace, etc.
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Sculpture: Thai sculpture
is concentrated on Buddha
images that rank among the
world's greatest expressions
of Buddhist art. As a result,
it is widely believed that
the Buddha images in Thailand,
from the Chiang Saen Period
(ll-13th c) to the present
Rattanakosin or Bangkok
Period, are so numerous
that they far outnumber
the population of the country.
Made in wood, metals, ivory,
precious stones and stucco,
they have been created to
represent Rattanatrai of
Buddhism, i.e., Buddha,
Dhamma (the Buddha's doctrine)
and Sanga (Buddhist clergy
Among Ihc most beautiful
Buddha images in Thailand
are Phra Buddha Chinnarat
in Wat Phra Sri Rattana
Mahalhiit (Phitsanulok Province)
and Phra Buddha Chinnarat
in Wai Bowon Niwet Wihan
(Bangkok).
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Literature: In the
early days, Thai literature
was concerned with religion,
royalty and aristocracy
and hardly anything else.
They were written in verse
of various patterns. Then,
in the early 20th century,
King Rama VI made a revolution
in Thai literary history.
Prose has become a favorite
form of writing among Thai
writers since then, and
common life scenes have
been depicted in their works.
One of the most important
Thai literary pieces is
the Ramakian, an epic derived
from the Ramayana of India.
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Drama: In the purely
classical form, Thai drama
and dance are indivisible.
The techniques of dancing
are of Indian origin, but
Thai people evolved them
to be much more graceful
and slow in motion. Thai
dramas include renowned
khon (the masked drama)
lakhon (a less formal dance
drama with movements more
graceful than khon), nang
yai and nang taking (shadow
plays) and hurt (marionettes).
In former days, dramas were
normally performed only
in the royal courts and
noble mansions. Ordinary
people could
enjoy such performances
only on festive occasions
in the compound Buddhist
monastery.
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Music: Thai
classical music uses the
diatonic music scale, The
instruments are of four
kinds: Those of plucking,
drawing, percussion and
woodwind. Apart from drama,
Thai classical music is
played in some religious
ceremonies, traditional
rites and on festive Occasions.
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Traditional Culture |
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By traditional culture we mean
customs concerning and human
relations, and the art of making
daily necessities such as utensils,
clothing and basketry.
The basis of the Thai customs
and traditions lies in the family,
whose structure is of bilateral
descent. Like the Chinese some
other Asian peoples, the young
are obliged to pay respect to
and follow the admonitions of
parents, elders, teachers and
Buddhist monks who, in the old
days formed a highly educated
class.
When speaking about traditional
Thai culture, what can not be
left unmentioned is the wat
or Buddhist temple. After Buddhism
had been spread throughout Thailand
for hundred of years,
the primitive animist belief
of the Thai people was assimilated
by the Buddhist one. The wat
became the centre of the village.
It was the place where people
received education, attended
rites and ceremonies and observed
feasts and festivals all the
year round.
Now a days, due to the rapid
advancement of technology, the
traditional Thai way of living,
especially in the big cities,
has inevitably changed. However
it is still preserved to a large
extent in the faraway rural
areas where modern civilization
has failed to penetrate.
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Living Style |
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Thailand is geographically divided
into four parts: the Central, the
North, the Northeast and the South.
Each differs from the other in landscape
and climate which have influence
on its people's way of life and
tradition. Now if you would like
to make an armchair visit to each
part of Thailand with Thaiways,
we will guide you around a traditional
Thai house in each region which
reflects rich traditional local
life style. Head this article now
and you may fall in love with Thai-style
houses, Thai arts and culture And
if you want to gain first-hand experience,
you may visit Bangsai Arts & Crafts
Centre in Ayutthaya where there
is a model village displaying Thai
life styles and Thai architectural
styIe of the four regions.
Many Thais call the northeastern
region isan . Isan people live in
nuclear families. When a boy grows
up and gets married, he will build
his own house close to his parents'.
So if you visit a northeastern village
you may observe that the village
is quite crowded. More-over, most
houses have no fences to clearly
mark their compounds. Instead, people
use the space between the houses
as their passages to visit one another.
Like the traditional houses in other
regions, a traditional northeastern
house is raised high on stilts to
allow more wind to go through the
house since the weather in the region
is hot and arid. Moreover, the area
under the house is used for multi-purposes
like weaving cloth, keeping agriculture
implements, raising ducks and chicken,
sitting for relaxaion, etc. Nearby
the house is a granary also built
on stills and often with farm
and fish-ing equipments hanging
on walls.
Going upstairs to the house, you
will first find a raised floor in
an open area without roofs or walls
where the northeasterners use to
wash clothes and dishes. Going further,
you will enter the part called koey
or a veranda with a roof where the
family members receive their guests.
The bedrooms look simple with small
windows. Inside the rooms are a
shelf housing Buddha images for
worshipping, a cabinet for keeping
weapons, a dressing table, and some
tools and utensils.
A kitchen is sometimes located under
the same roof of the main house
and sometimes built separately in
the form of a small house beside
the living area of the main house
connected with a corridor. The kitchen
also provides an area for having
meals.
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Thailand |
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