Chapter · Thailand · Today
What you notice on arriving
The wai, the law, the monks
A greeting whose height depends on who you are to each other, a law you are advised to know before you speak, and an orange robe almost every man has worn. This chapter explains what a traveller notices without understanding it, quoting the texts.
Context first
A lesson to read before the others, to set the scene.
- The place
- The era
- The people
The lessons in this chapter
- 1The wai: to whom, how high, in what orderThe wai is not a hello but a sentence about where two people stand. What counts is not the gesture but its height and who begins. For a visitor: wait, answer, and smile when in doubt.9 min
- 2The robe you leave without shameA robe taken for a time and given back without shame, wrote a traveller in 1687. The monastery was first the kingdom's school: reading, writing and counting, because everyone there carried on some trade.9 min
- 3Article 112, and the day it took its shapeOne sentence in the official gazette: to defame, insult or threaten the king, the queen, the heir or the regent, three to fifteen years. Three years is a floor. The wording dates from an order signed fifteen days after the 1976 coup.9 min
How these lessons are written
Each lesson starts from first-hand sources: Wikisource, Gallica, Persée, archives, museums and institutes. A fact without a source does not get written, and every lesson lists its own as direct links.
The rhythm
A lesson is five minutes of cards and four questions. Those questions then come back the next day, then at 3, 7, 21 and 60 days, and that return is what makes it stick. One a day is enough, and you can do several in a row.