Perception of Thailand before I embarked on my research

I see Thailand as a country with rich culture and tradition. I had done projects and research on Thailand before and found out that they have very rich culture and tradition. For instance, they do a ‘Wai’ when they greet people. It is their form of traditional greeting and varies with the social status of people.

Besides, I heard that the Thais do not like people touching the crown of their head because they believe that it is the sacred part and it is never good to show the sole of your feet to any Thais. This is because they believe that the feet are the filthiest body part. I believe there are more to the traditions and cultures of Thailand.

What represents the culture of Thailand?

There are many things that represent the culture of Thailand. Their religion, cuisine, tradition, architectures, districts, and etiquettes etc. all represent the culture of Thailand – represents their way of life.

Buddhism
There are other regions in Thailand like Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Taoism and Animism. However, Buddhism is the dominant religion and the king himself is also a Buddhist. Buddhism greatly impacts the culture of Thailand by influencing how the Thais think and behave, also inspiring many of the country’s art.

Thai cuisine
Foods of countries are an important culture to the countries. Thai food like tom kha gai, tom yam goong, pad thai, etc. are the popular food that tourists associate with the local culture and the country. Because these dishes originated from Thailand, there is authenticity to it and normally, people would associate these foods with Thailand.

Thai tradition
Thailand is a country that has a long history therefore it is only natural that they have many traditions. These traditions range from health and wellness (massages, medicine, etc.) to arts (tattoos, music, dance and drama, etc.) to architectures (houses, temples, mosques, etc.) to handicrafts (dolls, candles, etc.)

Thai Hill Tribes
The hill tribes are migrants from China, Burma, Laos and Tibet and they have their own religion, art culture and attire.

Architectures and districts
The architectures and districts represent Thailand in many ways. Ancient architectures like the ancient temples represent the history and religion of Thailand. The districts are the roads that the Thais pass by every day; it is their way of life which clearly is their culture.

Etiquettes
Etiquettes also represent the culture of Thailand – dining etiquette, meeting and greeting etiquette, dressing etiquette, etc.

What is Thailand’s focus of their calendar of events?

The Thais have many events and festivals but the main events are Chinese New Year, Songkran – Traditional Thai New Year, Coronation Day, the King’s and Queen’s birthday, Royal Ploughing Ceremony and Loy Krathong.

Chinese New Year is just like the normal Chinese New Year that the Chinese celebrated worldwide. The Chinese wear new clothes and visit temples to pray. They clean their houses and buy food to celebrate the event, gathering on New Year’s Eve to have a reunion dinner.

The Songkran is The Thai’s New Year and is celebrated on every 13th to 15th April. It is similar to the Chinese New Year, where they clean their houses and return back to their families to spend time with them. Songkran is also known as the Water Festival as one of the customs is to drench people in water. It is a tradition of pouring scented waters over the hands of the elders as a mark of respect. People also bring food to the monks at temples and free animals during this period of time as an act of kindness.

Coronation day is an event to celebrate the coronation of their king – His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej in 1950. The birthdays of the King and Queen whom are loved and respected by their people are also celebrated.

Royal Ploughing Ceremony is a ceremony that marks the start of planting season at the start of a rainy period when rice is sown. It is a ceremony that is greatly influenced by Buddhism in Thailand. This ceremony involves the blessing of rice grains from the Temple of the Emerald Buddha where the priests oversee the ploughing.

Loy Krathong is a festival that takes place on the evening of the full moon in November. The Thais would lit candles, incense with flowers and money and cast them into the water, letting them float away after they had made their wish.

Loy Kratong Festival

Disneyization of Thailand

Disneyization is the phenomenon through with more and more of society is beginning to resemble a Disney Theme Park (Bryman, 2004). There are four characteristics of disneyization: theming, hybrid consumption, merchandising and performative labour.

One such example of a destination in Thailand that was disneyfied is Dream World theme park in Bangkok. Dream World Theme Park at Bangkok has facilities that are themed according to architecture - they have an exhibition of the Seven Wonders of the World. They also have different themes in the different segments of the theme park. In Fantasy Land, they have portrayals of the Disney princesses. This theme park is also an Americanised theme park. Hybrid consumption is also evident in this theme park where there are food stalls, 4 different worlds inside the theme park which will make tourists stay for as long as they can to enjoy the facilities and pay money. Dream World at Bangkok also has a souvenir shop that sells many items that are the trademarks of the theme park. The employees there also dress up as mascots, going around playing with the tourists. Their job is to make the tourists happy.

The Authenticity of the Culture of Thailand from the Point of View from a Tourist

Many people have different views however, most tourists would feel that the experience they had in Thailand was authentic.

“We have visited Thailand many times before, but on this trip we felt as if we
had the best and most authentic Thai experience of our lives.
The guides
were both European (fluent in many languages like English, German &
Norwegian) and Thai, and this gave us the comfort of "best of both worlds". They
were also super friendly - any request was always met with a "Yes Can!"
attitude! Thanks Steffen & Uzi..

The sights were amazing (Tiger
Temple! The Eravan Waterfalls! The Elephant trek!), the food was wonderfully
true Thai - healthy and delicious.

For travellers who wish to see the
true Thailand, with focus on comfort, authentic experiences, nature and friendly
people - Try Mellow Trek in Kanchanaburi.

Peter & Camilla”

“My husband and I took this tour together. There was only one other person in
our group in addition to our tour guide. My husband doesn't really like to bike,
so I was concerned about him, but he really enjoyed it. This really is an all
skill levels tour. The guide is really patient and flexible. The train ride
alone was very pleasant with views of the passing countryside. We stopped and
learned about Thai herbs and ate things we picked right off the bush. We met
local farmers. We had a home cooked lunch at the mayor of the village's house.
We got away from the crowds of Bangkok and got to see authentic Thai culture.
Good bang for the buck.”

“After our tour guides met us in Bangkok we went to the local train station for
an hour long ride to the countryside, very nice scenery, a couple of Buddhist
monks even let me take a picture of them on the train, when we got to our stop
we got our bikes for a nice ride around the country through all the rice
paddies, then had a great lunch at the house of the mayor of one of the small
villages, the food was local and very fresh, overall I'd say it was a great day,
our guides were very friendly and knowledgeable, and spoke great English, very
good for me since I don't speak Thai, I would recommend this trip to anyone
looking for a bit of adventure off the beaten track”

The tourists were able to eat the local food with the locals in the villages, had contact with the rural areas of Thailand which are authentic as they had minimal contact with the urbanised culture of Thailand. It still had the true Thai essence and the tourists were able to experience it, even taking photos with the monks.

Culture and Traditions of Hill Tribes – Hmong Tribe

The Thai hill tribes live in the northern part of the country and have minimum contact with the urban areas of Thailand. They have migrated from other countries (Tibet, Laos, Burma and China) over the past two centuries. The main tribal groups of Thailand are the Yao (Mien), the Karen (Yang), the Akha, the Lahu (Musur), the Hmong (Meo) and the Lisu.
I have decided to research on the Hmong, which have the second largest population of the groups.

The Hmong originated from China and a majority of them still lives in China. The Hmong from Southeast Asia lives in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. There are about a total of 130,000 Hmong in Thailand where the largest populations are found in Phetchaburi, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Tak.

There are three subgroups of Hmong – Blue, White and Gua M’ba Meo. Gua M’ba Meo is actually a sub group of the Whites and they have migrated to Thailand from Laos recently and most of them are confined to refugee camps.

The Blue Hmong women wear blue pleated batik designed skirts with embroideries or/and appliquéd border. The jackets they wear are short and normally have a cross-stitched ornamental border. White Hmong women wear baggy trousers with a cummerbund that hangs until it almost reaches the ground. The jackets they wear are simple and with blue cuffs. White Hmong women wear skirts on special ceremonial occasions.

Men wear black embroidered jacket with three-quarter length trousers. The jacket closes over the chest with a button at the left shoulder.

The Hmong accessorizes with silver jewellery which they adore and which is a strong sign of wealth among the tribal group.

The houses of the Hmong are built on the ground and they have dirt floors, with sloping roofs that almost touches the ground – a trademark of their village. They live at high altitudes, below the crest of a protecting hill.

The Hmong are very animistic and they have shamans who use dramatic methods to contact spirits. The spirits are respected and ceremonies are conducted to ask for blessings and protection. There is a Hmong jewellery called the “Soul Lock” which is worn to keep the soul in the body.

The Hmong have supported themselves by cultivation of opium poppy, however, now, they are selling their exquisite embroideries for income.

Tourism Impacts on the Authentic Culture of the Hmong

There are both positive and negative socio-cultural impacts on the indigenous group. Positive impacts include tourism as a source of peace, strengthening communities, encouraging local involvement and pride and the conservation of culture and traditions. It also leads to the development of tourism facilitates which can benefit the locals.

Tourism brings people into contact with one another, which will create the mutual sympathy and understanding of the Hmong’s values and culture. More people will get to know about the Hmong culture and there would be a reduction in prejudice against the group.

Besides this, tourism acts as a force to strengthen communities. Tourism brings in job and income opportunities which provide stability to community life. It also encourages the group to work together and participate in tourism development, like organizing festivals and events which also increases their employment chances and earnings. Because tourism brings in stable income, the people from the indigenous group would not have to move out from their communities too look for jobs. This means that the community will stay and work together.

Also, tourism encourages local involvement and pride. It encourages the local awareness of the importance of cultural and natural resources. This also stimulates pride in the local and natural heritage that the group has. Increasing awareness of the importance of resources, together with the feeling of pride will then encourage interest in conservation and sustainability of the culture.
An interest in conservation and sustainability of the culture will eventually lead to efforts to preserve the culture of the group. They will also preserve their traditional arts and crafts which would be the souvenirs that most tourists bring back as they represent the authentic culture of the Hmong.

The development of tourism facilities which resulted from tourism can benefit the locals in the sense that there would be upgraded infrastructure, improvements in health and transport, and other facilities that would make the life of the locals easier as it would be more convenient for them.

For negative impact, it would be the change or loss of indigenous identity and values which can be broken down into commodities, standardization and loss of authenticity.

Culture is commercialized to satisfy the tourists’ preferences. For example, the Hmong might alter some of their traditional arts and crafts to fit the preference of the tourists so they would be able to sell the product. There is also a problem of standardization where the place is customized for the tourists to satisfy the tourists’ desire for familiar facilities. This would change the way of life of the Hmong because it would change the place where they live in.

It will also lead to a loss in authenticity where the Hmong will accustom their culture to cater to the tourists. For example, events that happen only once a year for the Hmong would be repeated every week or month for the tourists for tourism development. This is not the true culture and is just a staged authenticity of their culture.

Reflection of Thailand’s culture and tourism after Research

Thailand is a country with many culture and traditions that was passed down from the ancestors. The development of tourism might have made their culture lose its authenticity because their culture was standardised for the tourists. However, it was also because of tourism that many culture of Thailand have been preserved.

Without tourism, many of the indigenous groups would have moved into the city to get higher paying jobs to fund their families. With more and more people leaving their tribes, the groups will have less and less members and their culture would be lost since there would be nobody to pass down their traditions to.

Thailand will remain as a country with rich culture and tradition, protecting its culture and tradition through conserving and sustaining it with the help of tourism.

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