Long Live the King
In 99% of countries around the world, Monday is the worst day of the week. It's the first day of the work/school week and it's the furthest you could possibly be from a relaxing weekend. It gives rise to the Office Space expression "Somebody's got a case of the Mondays." Thailand, however, falls within the other 1% of the world, where every Monday is [We Love the] King Day.
Gold is the official color of the King (corresponding with the color attributed to the day of the week of his birth, Monday) and on Monday, you'd be hard pressed not to know it. Everyone who is not in business attire dons nearly identical gold polo shirts bearing the crest of the royal family. Add to that the golden wristbands engraved with the phrase "Long Live the King," and you have yourself the genuine monarch roadie wear. It has a very 'Casual Friday at the office' feel to it.
In Thailand, it's pretty much national law that you have to love the king. I'm not kidding. That's actually not far from the truth, as Thailand has some of the strictest laws prohibiting blasphemy against the monarchy. Shrines and pictures of the King in various regal and humanitarian scenes (meeting with a peasant, showing his love of photography, taking a walk through the countryside) dot the streets and literally almost outnumber traffic lights. About a month ago an elderly ex-pat decided to go out and spray paint a giant "x" over a couple of these portraits and was subsequently sentenced to something like 75 years in prison. The King ended up pardoning the man 'in his infinite wisdom and kindness,' and he was released, albeit stripped of his visa.
The penultimate experience of the Thai reverence for their King came for me at the beginning of a movie at a Chiang Mai theatre. After the previews and before the feature, a message came on the screen that said, "Show your respect for His Majesty the King." Suddenly, everyone in the theatre arose and what ensued was a video montage tribute. Rice fields, countryside, and other beautiful Thai landscapes filled the background while raindrops containing pictures of His Majesty floated down the screen. The background music was the Royal Anthem... that's right, not the national anthem, the King has his own song. As the rain cleared, a rainbow came across the screen and illuminated one of his portraits. This happens before every movie in every theatre in Thailand.
posted by Sean | 1:19 AM
1 Comments:
Loved the insight into the worship of the royals, which made me want to share a story about my only brush with the Thai monarchy. Actually, it was my only brush with any monarchy, except maybe for the time I shook hands with Bill Clinton.
Anyway, I was at a meeting in Hawaii with judges who were learning about genetics and the Princess of Thailand was a speaker. She is a scientist and very much interested in bringing biotechnology to SE Asia.
That's kind of interesting in itself, but the fascinating thing for the entire audience was the retinue of deep-bowers and scrapers that surrounded her, literally, for every step she took, including up to the podium. It gave us a little bit of insight into that culture, and to the worship you talk about. Hand shaking was not encouraged.
Good stuff, Sean. Keep it coming.
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