Amazing Thai Culture - The best of Thailand culture Guide

THAI CULTURE

THAI CULTURE

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 court Culture, which have been based mainly on Buddhism and Brahmanism, India has exerted a strong influence.

Thai culture can be divided in to 3 aspects: linguistic culture, court culture, and traditional culture.

LINGUISTIC CULTURE
The Thai language, or Phasa Thai, basically consists of monosyllable words, whose meanings are complete by themselves. Its alphabet was created by King Ramkhamhaeang 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 to day 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 - เสือ (suea, with rising tone), เสื่อ (suea, low tone) and เสื้อ (sues, 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.

Everyday used sentences and phrases
Greetings Sawadee khrab/kha : Hello, khrab, put at the end of sentences, is used by guys to express politeness kha, put at the end of sentences, is used by girls to express politeness.

THAI ENGLISH
Sabai dee mai khrab/kha How are you? Sabai dee khrab/kha I'm fine Khob Khun khrab/kha Thank you Laew chur khun mai See you later Chan I (Both girls and guys) Pom I (Guys) Pood pasa ang-grid dai mai khrab/kha Can you speak English? Kho thod khrab/kha I'm sorry Direction ...pai tang nai What is the direction of... (place)? ...pai yang rai How do I get to ...(place)? Leaw sai Turn left Leaw kwah Turn right Trong pai Go straight Yon glab Go back Eating & buying Chan hew I'm hungry Pai kin/than kaw gun Let's have something to eat Kreungdeum Drink Numplao Water Numkhang Ice Sang a-han khrab/kha I would like to order some food Keb ngeun Check Tao rai How much is it? Ao un nee I will take this one Mai ao un nee I won't take this one Lod noi dai mai khrab/kha (You can use this sentence when you would like to bargain.) Vocabularies Thanon Street/road Soi Lane/alley Pai Sign Hong num Toilet Rod may Bus A-han Food Ran a-han Restaurant Pai Go

COURT CULTURE
Court culture refers to the conception of beauty, perfection and harmony in the fine arts, including painting, 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.

As the centrepoint of Indianised South - East Asia - as distinct from Sinicised South -East Asia east of the Annamite Chain of mountains - Thailand's long -standing artistic traditions owe their greatest debt to the arts of India. As in India, traditional art in Thailand revolved around religious symbols borrowed from Hindu and Buddhist cosmology as well as literary epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The shastras of India (saat in Thai) - semi - semi - sacred texts which systematised the way in which these symbols were to be sculpted, painted and applied to architecture - became equally important in Thailand subsequent to their importation.

These symbols and texts arrived in Thailand by many avenues, including Indian traders, Mon immigrants, Sinhalese missionaries, Indonesian sailors and Khmer soldiers - each of which acted as cultural and artistic filters. When further modified by Thai artists and artisans, they attained their own native characteristics, which resulted in distinctively Thai modes of artistic expression. Most of the works served the Buddhist religion.

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.

Today contemporary Thai painting is exhibited at a number of Bangkok and Chiang Mai venues. One of the most important modern movements in Thai art was an updating of Buddhist themes, begun in the 1970s by painters Pichai Nirand, Thawan Duchanee and Prateung Emjaroen. The movement has grown stronger since their early efforts combined modern western schemata with Thai motifs. One Bangkok gallery, the Visual Dhamma Art Gallery (off Soi Asoke), specialises in the display of modern Thai Buddhist art by a number of different artists.

Another important venue and source of support for modern art are Bangkok's luxury hotels. The largest collection of modern Thai painting anywhere in the world is found in the lobbies and public areas of the Grand Hyatt Erawan; the displays are changed regularly.

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 roof-tops 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 Place, etc.

More recently, a handful of rebellious architects have begun reincorporating traditional Thai motifs - mixed with updated western classics - in new buildings. Rangsan Torsuwan, a graduate of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), introduced the neoclassic (or neo - Thai) style, the best example of which is the new Grand Hyatt Erawan in Bangkok. Another architect using traditional Thai architecture in modern functions is Pinyo Suwankiri, who has designed a number of government buildings in Bangkok as well as the Cittaphawan Buddhist School in Chanburi.

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 Sean Period (11-13th 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 Ratanatrai of Buddhism, i.e., Buddha, Dhamma (the Buddha's doctrine) and Sanga (Buddhist clergy). Among the most beautiful Buddha images in Thailand are Phra Buddha Chinnarat in Wat Mahathat (Phitsanulok province) and Phra Buddha Chinnasi in Wat Bowon Niwet (Bangkok)

Literature
In the early days, Thai literature was concerned with religion, royalty and aristocracy and hardly anything else. Then, in the early 20th century, King Rama VI made a revolution in Thai literary history. Prose has become a favourite 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.

Also passed on from Indian tradition are the many jatakas or life stories of the Buddha (chaa-t?k in Thai). Of the 547 jataka tales in the pali tripitaka (Buddhist caono) - each one chronicling a different past life-most appear in Thailand almost word-for-word as they were first writtendown in Sri Lanka. A group of 50 "extra" stories, based on Thai folk tales of the time, were added by Pali scholars in Chiang Mai 300 to 400 years ago. The most popular jataka in Thailand is one of the Pali originals known as the Mahajati or Mahavessandara (Mahaa-Wetsandon in Thai), the story of the Buddha's penultimate life. Interior murals in the b?t or ordination chapel of Thai wats typically depict this jataka and nine others: Temiya, Mahaachanaka, Suwannasama, Nemiraja, Mahaasotha, Bhuritat, Chantakumara, Nartha and Vithura.

The 30,000-line Phra Aphaimain, composed by poet Sunthorn Phu in the late 18th century, is Thailand's most famous classical literary work. Like many of its epic predecessors around the world, it tells the story of an exiled prince who must complete an odyssey of love and war before returning to his kingdom in victory.

Poetry
During the Ayuthaya period, Thailand developed a classical poetic tradition based on five types of verse- chan, kap, khong, khlon and rai. Each of these forms uses a complex set of strict rules to regulate metre, rhyming patterns and number of syllables. Although all of these poetic systems use the Thai language, chan and kap are derived from Sanskrit verse forms from India while khlong, khlon and rai are native forms. The Indian forms have all but disappeared from 20th century use. During the political upheavals of the 1970s, several Thai newspaper editors, most notably Kukrit Pramoj, composed lightly disguised political commentary in khlon verse. Modern Thai poets seldom use the classical forms, preferring to compose in blank verse or with song-style rhyming.

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 maskd drama), lakhon (a less formal dance drama with movements more graceful than khon), nang yai and nang talung (shadow plays) and hun (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 of a Buddhist monastery.

Khon
{add Khon1.jpg} In all khon performances, four types of characters are represented-male humans, female humans, monkeys and demons. Monkey and demon figures are always masked with the elaborate head coverings often seen in tourist promo material. Behind the masks and make-up, all actors are male. Traditional khon is a very expensive production-Ravana's retinue alone (Ravana is the Ramakian's principal villain) consists of over a hundred demons, each with a distinctive mask. Perhaps because it was once limited to royal venues and hence never gained a popular following, the khon or Ramakian dance-drama tradition nearly died out in Thailand. Bangkok's National Theatre was once the only place where khon was regularly perfomed for the public; the renovated Chalermkrung Royal Theatre now hosts weekly khon performances enhanced by laser graphics and high-tech audio.

Scenes performed in traditional khon (and lokhon performances) come from the Ramayana, the classic "epic journey" tale with obvious archetypal parallels in the Greek epic the Odyssey, and the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts. The central story revolves around Prince Rama's search for his beloved Princess Sita, who has been abducted by the evil 10-headed demon Ravana and taken to the island of Lanka. Rama is assisted in his search and in the final battle against Ravana by a host of mythical half-animal, half-human characters including the monkey-god Hanuman. See the following Literature section for some details on the differences between the Indian jRamayana and the Thai Ramakian.

Nang
Shadow-puppet theatre- in which two-dimensional figures are manipulated between a cloth screen and light source at night - time performances -has been a South - East Asian tradition for perhaps five centuries. Originally brought to the Malay Peninsula by Middle Eastern traders, the technique eventually spread to all parts of mainland and peninsular South-East Asia; in Thailand it is mostly found only in the South. As in Malaysia a d Indonesia, shadow puppets in Thailand are carved from dried buffalo or cow hides (nang in Thai).

Two distinct shadow-play traditions survive in Thailand. The most common, nang thalung, is named after Phattalung Province, where it developed based on Malay models. Like their Malay-Indonesian counterparts, the Thai shadow puppets represent an array of characters from classical and folk drama, principally the Ramakian and Phra Aphaimani in Thailand. A single puppet master manipulates the cutouts, which are bound to the ends of buffalo-horn handles. Nang thalung is still occasionally seen at temple fairs in the South, mostly in Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat Provinces. Performances are also held periodically for tour groups or visiting dignitaries from Bangkok.

The second tradition, nang yai (literally, "big hide"), uses much larger cutouts, each bound to two wooden poles held by a puppet master; several masters (almost always male) may participate in a single performance. Nang yai is rarely performed nowadays because of the lack of trained nang masters and the expense of the shadow puppets. Most nang yai made today are sold to interior decorators or tourists - a well-crafted hide puppet may cost as much as 50,000 Baht. In 1994, in order to celebrate the king's 50th year on the throne, the Fine Arts Departments initiated a project to restore the original 180-year-old set of nang yai figures used by the Thai royal court. The project required the refurbishing of 352 puppets along with the creation of a hundred new ones to complete the royal set, known as Phra Nakhon Wai ("City-Shaking") -a tribute to the impact they had on audiences nearly two centuries ago. In addition to the occasional performance in Nakhon Si Thammarat or Bangkok, nang yai can be seen at Wat Khanon in Ratchaburi Province,where nang yai master Khru Chalat is passing the art along to younger men.

Lakhon
The more formal lakhon nai (inner lakhon) was originally performed for lower nobility by all-female ensembles; today it's a dying art, even more so than royal khon. In addition to scenes from the Ramakian, lakhon nai performances may include traditional Thai fold tales; whatever the story. Text is always sung.

Lakhon nawk (outer lakhon) deals exclusively with fold tales and features a mix of sung and spoken text, sometimes with improvisation. Both male and female performers are permitted. Like khon and lakhon nai, performances are becoming increasingly rare. More common these days is the less refined lakhon chatrii, a fast-paced, costumed dance-drama usually performed at upcountry temple festivals or at shrines (commissioned by a shrine devotee whose wish was granted by the shrine deity). Chartii stories have been influenced by the older mamohra theatre of southern Thailand (see the following Manohra section).

Lakhon phuut (speaking lakhon) is the equivalent of western theatre based on the Greek model - all dialogue is spoken rather than sung. Thai are the most modern of Thailand's theatre traditions as well as the most popular in cities and larger towns.

Music

Thai classical music uses the diatonic music scale. The instruments are of four kind: 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.

The classical orchestra is called the pii-phaat and can include as few as five players or more than 20. Among the more common instruments is the pii, a woodwind instrument which has a reed mouthpiece; it is heard prominently at Thai boxing matches. The pii is a relative of a similar Indian instrument, while the phin, a stringed instrument whose name comes from the Indian vina, is considered native to Thailand. A bowed saw. The ranaat ek is a bamboo- keyed percussion instrument resembling the western xylophone, while the khlui is a wooden flute.

In the North and North-East there are several popular reed instruments with multiple bamboo pipes, which function basically like a mouth- organ. Chief among thee is the khaen, which originated in Laos; when played bye an adept musician it sounds like a rhythmic, churning calliope. The funky luuk thung (or country; literally " children of the fields") style, which originated in the North- East, has become a favorite throughout Thailand.

TRADITIONAL CULTURE
By traditional culture we mean customs concerning agriculture and human relations, 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 and 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 cannot be left unmentioned is the wat of throughout Thailand for hundreds 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.

Nowadays, 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.

Thai Culture Information from Thai way and Lonely Planet