[cinggooft]

The wai is a situation-specific ritual. There are general rules governing who should initiate the wai and what type of wai is used. Social status and age are two very important factors in determining who should wai first and how high the wai should be.

Those who are high up in the hierarchy (and therefore have high status) are e.g. monks, members of the royal family, ministers, teachers, doctors and bosses. Those with high social status receives the wai from people with a lower status.

A junior person will initiate the wai when meeting a senior person. Thus, the employee will always wai the boss first. A high wai is given and the boss reciprocates by giving a lower wai.

People who are older than us are treated with respect and are deemed to be above us in status. These include our parents, older relatives and neighbours and even strangers.

Howver if a man buys some groceries from an old lady, he doesn't initiate a wai. In this social exchange, he is a customer and that places him above the seller even though she is older than him.

The confusion usually comes when we are unsure of where we stand in the social ladder when meeting another party. A useful tip is to find out what our role is during the encounter e.g. client-salesman, superior-subordinate, parent-child, teacher-student, senior government official-normal citizen, royalty-commoner... No two persons are "equal".

As a rule, we do not wai those in the service line, maids or children.