What are the interesting traditional cultures and national habits in Thailand?

When it comes to Thailand, most people will first think of transvestites. But after going there, I found that this is a very cute country, not only with transvestites, but also many, many more. I will start with the four major cultures of Thailand and talk about the interesting things I heard, saw and encountered.

Religious Culture

Thailand is a country where all people believe in religion. About 97% of the people believe in Theravada Buddhism, which is different from Mahayana Buddhism in our country. The biggest difference is that Mahayana Buddhism advocates saving others first and then saving oneself, while Hinayana Buddhism advocates saving all living beings, saving oneself first and then saving others, having self-awareness and the principle of absolute self-spiritual independence, so there is absolute mutual respect between people. It is the biggest characteristic of Thai people. You can see people in Thailand praying to each other with their hands together like worshiping Buddha, instead of hugging and shaking hands like in other countries. This is a reflection of the physical and spiritual mutual respect that Thai people have for themselves and others. When boys reach adulthood, they must become a monk once before getting married, which can take as little as one week or as long as one year. Some escape into Buddhism and become monks for life. The purpose of becoming a monk is to first be grateful to your parents when you become an adult, and then start a family.

It is precisely because of their devout beliefs that the crime rate of Thai people is very low. They do not steal or rob, and they will take the initiative to return lost items when they find them. However, the overall crime rate in Thailand is very high. People come to Thailand from Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries to work. When going out at night, be careful of motorcycle robbers. It's the same, if you are robbed, you can't get it back.

2. Royal culture

In the hearts of the Thai people, the Thai royal family has a very important status. Rama IX Bhumibol Adu, who passed away in 2016, De, who made many decisions that were beneficial to the people in his life, is highly respected and loved by the Thai people. Even now, huge photos of King Ninth King hanging high can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys of Thailand.

The ninth king is most praised by the international community for his implementation of the opium poppy replacement planting project in the notorious Golden Triangle area of ??northern Thailand, which has achieved remarkable anti-drug effects. After the poppies were eradicated, experts were sent to analyze the local soil, and based on different climatic conditions, rice, flowers, vegetables, fruits, coffee and other crops were planted. At the same time, traditional handicrafts were developed. The very famous jasmine rice was produced here. The much-loved King Rama IX

Look carefully at the eyes of King Rama IX. One eye is a prosthetic eye, which was a medical accident caused by fake medicine. It is for this reason that King Rama IX hates fake medicine very much. Production, and constitution: In addition to drug trafficking, if you manufacture counterfeit medicine, no matter how much, you will be punished by death. With the impetus of this constitution, Thailand’s various medicines are world-famous, unadulterated, and effective.

In addition, the Ninth King was a very single-minded person. He only married one wife in his life, pampered her all his life, and raised one son and three daughters. In contrast, Rama V Chulalongkorn, the ninth king’s grandfather, was also a very enlightened monarch who vigorously promoted reforms, but he had many wives and concubines, with more than one hundred wives and more than seventy sons; In addition, the only son of the ninth king, the tenth king, is also a famous playboy and is not particularly loved by the Thai people. It is said that the ninth king was very old and had not passed on the throne for a long time. He wanted to pass the throne directly to his grandson. Unfortunately, he did not see the birth of his grandson until his death.

Among all the children of the ninth king, the second daughter Princess Sirindhorn has a temperament more like a qualified heir. She often represents the king at important state events and ceremonies and is still unmarried. Princess Sirindhorn is also an outstanding envoy of China-Thailand friendship. She has visited China many times. She loves Chinese culture very much and speaks fluent Chinese. She never brings a translator when she comes to China.

3. Shemale culture

Speaking of shemales, many people misunderstand them. They think that Thai people have to undergo sex reassignment surgery and choose to be shemales because they are too poor. But after my understanding, this is not actually the case. Due to water quality problems, Thailand has a huge disparity in the number of men and women in terms of birth rate. Many boys' parents are busy with work, and they are brought up by their sisters. Without the role of their father as a role model, many boys like to put on makeup and makeup since childhood, and they tend to be more feminine. These people want to be a girl from the bottom of their hearts, so they have sex reassignment surgery. , the number of ladyboys in Thailand is 1/70 of the number of all boys.

Guys, imagine this, if you have a job where you earn more and work less hours, the price is to spend a lot of money to have you undergo more than fifty surgeries, look like a girl, take drugs for a long time, and you can only live to six years at most. More than ten years old, would you like to? All boys would rather starve to death than choose this job. In addition to these boys who chose to change gender, there are other boys who chose to become monks, which eventually led to the male-to-female ratio reaching 1:2. Thailand is also the prototype of the daughter country in Journey to the West.

Thailand’s transgender people don’t just exist on the stage. They are actually found in various industries. Every girl you see on the street may be a ladyboy. We don’t need to look at them differently. They are just girls with special physiological conditions. They bravely followed their inner wishes, endured great pain, became girls, and lived the way they expected. In fact, they are very Worthy of respect.

Let’s talk about gender reassignment surgery here. The most painful part is not what you think, but the removal of four ribs in order to slim down the waist. In addition, all parts of a transsexual's body can be operated on, except for the vocal cords. Therefore, transsexuals generally do not open their mouths and lip-sync when performing. Otherwise, if they do not speak, their mouths will be shocking. With the development of modern medicine, the average life span of transvestites has increased from about 40 years old to more than 60 years old.

The embarrassing thing is that ladyboys are still classified as men in Thai law, so every year in the military recruitment meeting, you will see many beautiful faces. If you are unfortunate enough to win a red lottery, you will often be taken advantage of in the military camp. .

4. Erotic culture

Thailand’s erotic culture is most famous in Pattaya. Pattaya was originally a small fishing village. During the Vietnam War, it was chosen as a military base by American soldiers, and then developed a entertainment business. After so many years of development and transformation, Pattaya has finally become what it is today. At night, the neon lights of big shops, big hotels, dance halls, and nightclubs are dazzling. There are rows of pavilion-style bars on both sides of the streets.

The most famous one is the "Chicken, Duck, Goose, Cat and Dog" street. Chicken refers to a woman, duck refers to a man, goose refers to a transvestite, cat refers to a crooked nut, and dog refers to a black person. If you are curious, you can find out for yourself. .

I also went to see the 6996 Adult Show. I looked at it from the perspective of appreciating art, so I thought it was okay. I especially like one of the boys. His movements are very charming. Whenever he goes on stage, he is filled with a confident and bright smile. He is not at all perfunctory and tired like other performers. He has an expression that says "I am the most beautiful in the world" all over his face. He is probably in I saved up money for sex reassignment surgery, but now I feel a little regretful that I didn’t take a photo with him when I came out. I hope he will eventually become what he or she most wants to be.

These are the four major cultures of Thailand. If you have a deeper understanding, you will find that many phenomena are not what we originally imagined. Let me talk about the lives of the Thai people. There is a reason why Thailand has been ranked first among the happiest countries for many years in a row.

First of all, Thailand's land is privatized, so the country does not have unified planning and no image projects. In urban areas, we often see "slums" with iron roofs next to high-rise buildings. Electric wires are flying across the city. It doesn't feel very high-end, but there is no hype, the land is very cheap, and everyone has a place to live. Moreover, the land use period in Thailand is 999 years. This slightly coincidental and strange number, to put it bluntly, means permanent use rights.

In addition, Thailand’s education system is also very complete. For nine years of compulsory education, you really don’t have to pay any money, including tuition, books, brunch, and two bottles of milk a day. This does not include dinner. The school believes that students must go home to have dinner with their families and be reunited.

Thailand’s medical system is even more amazing. The current medical plan is that regardless of any disease, from childhood to major, there is only a registration fee of 30 baht, equivalent to 6 yuan in RMB, and other fees are the same as the state bear. Therefore, Thai people really live a life without any worries. There is no need to save money, throw it away after spending it, and you will still have it tomorrow.

This system makes Thai people very slow-tempered and very inefficient. If you are anxious, they will not be anxious. They will also say "Zaiyanyan" to you slowly, which means to take your time. I stamped my stamps slowly and didn't feel anxious at all while waiting in long queues; I never heard the sound of car horns in the streets and alleys of Thailand. Even when the traffic jam in Bangkok was very serious, the streets were always quiet and quiet. I rushed to the road and honked my horn, and every car was waiting step by step.

By the way, our electronic passport is so convenient. When entering and exiting the customs, it took seconds. I looked at the long queue for the traditional passport with open eyes.

This time when we went to Thailand, we went to the beautiful Koh Samet. In order to protect the environment, Koh Samet prohibits bringing single-use plastic bags onto the island and will impose fines if found. It can be said that the efforts in this regard are quite good. But when I was snorkeling out of the island, I found that the arrival of a large number of tourists had caused serious damage to the coral reefs. When I got off the boat for snorkeling, I was the first to enter the water. To my surprise, I only saw a blue-green patch and could not see the bottom of the sea at all. With the consent of the boatman, I took off my life jacket and dived down two or three meters before I could vaguely see the bottom of the sea. In other words, the water where I got off the boat was about seven or eight meters deep, but the water was very unclear. For other people on the boat who couldn't swim and could only float in life jackets, they could only see the tropical fish floating on the upper layer of the sea water, but I saw the coral reefs, coral polyps, sea urchins, and tiger fish disguised as coral reefs on the bottom of the sea. A foot-long tropical fish desperately trying to get into the crevices of the reef. To my dismay, due to the arrival of humans, there are not many coral polyps left. They are almost all gray coral reefs. Occasionally, I can see purple coral polyps with two pieces fanning back and forth like a fan.

The boat owners are all Thai, and there is a Thai guy on the boat who helps with snorkeling. He is really naughty. I was holding on to the towing buckle under the boat in the water, and he suddenly splashed water, which made me confused. When I came to my senses and looked at him in confusion, he helped the aunt next to me hold the float as if nothing had happened. or when I was treading water, he suddenly grabbed my foot, which scared me so much that I thought a fish was biting me. Then he turned his head and pretended that nothing happened, which made me dumbfounded. But in the final analysis, I have to thank him for allowing me to take off the life jacket, otherwise how could I have the opportunity to see the underwater scenery that others cannot see. Later, he used his slippers to scoop up a sea urchin from the bottom of the water, waving its long thorns majestically.

Next time I plan to go to Chiang Mai for a free trip, a very healing town that feels like Dali, Lijiang. Just sauce.