Sawadee kha! Greetings from Thailand!
Thailand is the “land of smiles!” and truly the smiles of the Thai people are contagious and exhuberant!
Culture: Thailand, known as Siam until 1939 (like in the movie “the King and I”), is called the “land of the free.” Over 99% of Thai residents identify as Thai, originating from the mountainous region of Altai in northern Mongolia. The remaining 1% of Thai residents are Chinese, Malay, Khmer, Mon and Indian. Still today, there are a number of different people groups living in the hills to the north and west including the Akha, Meo, Karen, Lawa, Lisu, and Hmong. Thais have incredible self-confidence, but not arrogance, having never been under foreign rule. They put a great deal of effort into maintaining social harmony and use their smile to put people at ease and diffuse the situation. They are also extremely respectful people who greet eac other by pressing their hands together as in prayer and inclining the head forward in salutation, known as the wai. The top of the head is the most important part of one’s body for a Thai because it is believed that a person’s spirit resides here. Consequently, you should never touch a person’s head. To demonstrate humility, your head should always be lower than that of your superior (I should have no problem with this! :)). On the contrary, the feet are the least important and should be kept out of sight as much as possible. Never point at anything with a foot or rest your feet on the table because this is the height of rudeness.
Ministry: Wats or Buddhist temples dot the landscape of Thailand. The Thai school of Theravada Buddhism is rooted in Hinayna Buddhism, an ancient school of Buddhism. Theravada Buddhists do not regard it as possible for a layperson to attain the state of perfection, only a reduction of suffering through earning merits with good deeds and avoiding evil, known as tam boon. Muslims tend to be concentrated in the south of the country, bordering on Malaysia. Christians are centrally located in Bangkok where there is a large number of Christian educational institutions. Some of the hill tribes practice animism, the belief that everything, animate or inanimate, possesses a soul or spirit. Our ministry this month involves ministering to the prostitutes in the Red Light district. Thais do not have any inhibitions about sex and while 60% of foreign men entering the country are here for sexual pleasure, 80% of the revenue produced in the sex industry is from Thai men themselves. Polygamy is generally accept and housewives tolerate their husband’s extramarital activities, including having minor wives or regular conjugal visits to prostitutes. Officially prostitution is illegal in Thailand since 1960, establishments offering sexual services often masquerade as bars, restaurants, hotels, and massage parlors. Authorities turn a blind eye to their true nature because it brings in so much revenue. We will be in Chiang Mai working with Lighthouse, an outreach ministry of YWAM Thailand that provides prostitutes with an alternative employment.
Language: Thai belongs to the Austro-Thai language family and is radically different from most of the other tongues of Southeast Asia. Thai is a tonal language, meaning words are differentiated not only by vowels and consonants but also the 5 tones, which can be flat, high, low, rising, or falling. Thai script is even more confusing with 44 consonants to represent 21 consonant sounds and 32 vowels to deal with 48 different vowel sounds. When speaking Thai, men end their sentence in khrap and women end in kha. Some useful Thai phrases include:
- sawadee meaning hello
- sawat dii/la kawn meaning goodbye
- khawp khun meaning thank you
- khaw thawt meaning excuse me
- sabai dii reu? meaning how are you?
- khun cheu arai? meaning what’s your name?
- …yuu thii nai? meaning where is the…?
- …thao rai/kii baat? meaning how much is…?
- mai khao jai meaning I don’t understand
Food: Many Thais eat kao tom noodle soup or rice soup for breakfast, a light meal of fried rice or noodles for lunch, and rice with a steamed dish, fried dish, curry soup, and salad for supper. Street vendors offer noodles and meat balls on a stick at any time of the day. Typical dishes are flavored with garlic, coriander root, black pepper, lemon grass, ginger, and chili. Some common dishes include: geng ped curry, geng jert nua beef soup, tom yam hot and spicy soup, kau pat fried rice, kwitiau noodle soup, tawt man pla or tawt man kung fish or prawn cakes. Thailand also has an extensive variety of exotic fruits such as durian, a spiky fruit with a stink, bananas, mangoes, papayas, pineapples, pomelo, rambutan, custard apple, jackfruit, and mangosteen. Desserts tend to be sweet often containing rice or coconut.
