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Thai Culture Anyone claiming to understand Thai culture and being able to advise others on how to behave towards Thais is probably not worth listening to. Every Farang who wants to increase his or her understanding of Thai culture needs to appreciate that doing so will involve a life-long learning process. It is difficult for any Westerner to truly understand – ie. be humbly standing under rather than characteristically standing above and looking down at – Does this mean that Thais understand their own culture better than any Westerner could? If so, why do they not explain it? It may appear that Thais “think” less, or are less intellectually active. Or the perfidious mind may suggest that Thais care more about status and material splendour, have a more superficial view of knowledge, and waste more time playing and doing nothing than engage in a dissection of their own culture. The reluctance to engage in deep thought about what it means to be Thai is to do with Thai ideals and values as expressed by Buddhism. According to Buddhist belief, Less is More. The Western obsession with getting at the roots of things and thoroughly understanding and thus mastering something leads inevitably, according to Buddhist doctrine, to rebirth and renewed suffering. So Thais do tend to spend their lives more or less on the surface of things. We all do, to some extent. But the Thais prove daily that they can live without depth, while the rest of the world is busy burying itself in thought. In their chosen field the Thais are undefeated grand masters while we still crawl about in the muck trying to find answers. The following articles should be read in this light. The articles will attempt to shed some light on different aspects of Thai culture but it can never be regarded as any kind of complete explanation.
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