[Serttyfd]

Why do we respect our Parents, our elders, elder brother & sister, teacher, gurus...? They are human. There is a very old bond & roles we play built on trusted expectations which include ... care, respect, love, patience, a long-term perspective to ensure well-being, empathy, sacrifice, a oneness, duty... When all these values are alive... I do not have to demand my rights from those I love.. my loved ones give them to me. Obviously everything is not perfect and that is where love is the glue and keeps us together. I think that is the same relationship with the king. I also think its a tacit & quiet understanding and it has the stamp of being time-tested as its approval. Tyring to speak about it can only explain so much.

[UvjqTVVC]

I beg to differ. 5555 teens and their rooms. What more to say. the movie stars and pop stars are idolized very much.

Also crosses, religious articles, Pics of mom , dad, grandma, grand pa. girl friend, boy friend, wife, husband, etcææææ
After all we are all human 55555 Pictures that we look up to remind us of who we are and are ideals.

[Suvuseh]

Quote[/b] ]It would be very strange for someone in the US to have a picture of President Bush in their home.

Don't idolize people, they're only human

I think idolising is the wrong word to use. I still stick to respect.

Quote[/b] ]Pictures that we look up to remind us of who we are and are ideals

Apart from pictures, does displaying your country flag in your house sounds 'idolising'? For one, i would be proud to display my national flag at home..

[Junrlaeh]

A bit to much politics on this thread. The King is the head of the country, the leader of his people. People are bound to respect him. To mark respect, we hang pictures on our walls. Much the same for a picture of Jesus Christ for example. He too was once human.

[enentique]

Quote[/b] (Guest @ April 08 2003,18:51)]It would be very strange for someone in the US to have a picture of President Bush in their home.

If there was pictures of Thaksin up in every home then your analogy would be more accurate. This isn't the same thing though, as the King isn't a politican like Bush or Thaksin.

[AlabamaBoyz]

I agree with boolagoo in that aspect.

[Junrlaeh]

What's with all the capitals, boolagoo. Jai Yen Yen, we get the picture...

[Aniplinipsync]

Quote[/b] ]Why are royalty held in such high esteem in Thailand? I can understand why the king is popular but I don’t really understand why people would want his photo hanging in there houses.

Uh, because he is the King. People are supposed to revere the King. Why do foreigners always frame things according to their own views and customs? Why can't people accept other cultures and customs withoug judging? The King of Thailand is worthy of his people's respect. That's more than I can say for some elected officials in other lands

[Kristoferson]

Quote[/b] (visionchaser45 @ April 12 2003,09:34)] Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]Why are royalty held in such high esteem in Thailand? I can understand why the king is popular but I don’t really understand why people would want his photo hanging in there houses.

Uh, because he is the King. People are supposed to revere the King. Why do foreigners always frame things according to their own views and customs? Why can't people accept other cultures and customs withoug judging? The King of Thailand is worthy of his people's respect. That's more than I can say for some elected officials in other lands


We frame things according to their own views and customs because we have no other framework to work with. My experience has been that Thai people (all people in fact) are inclined to behave in the same way. I see nothing wrong with that. I guess the substance of my original question was “Is it the human-being who holds the office of king that you respect or is it just the fact that he is a king.” If you were to ask me a similar question about my country (which is Australia if you're interested), I would happily answer it without any animosity. By the way, can you really claim that your remark,"The King of Thailand is worthy of his people's respect. That's more than I can say for some elected officials in other lands" is an attempt on your part to be non-judgmental? And do you really think that the response "Uh, because he is the King. People are supposed to revere the King" is an answer to this or any other question? "Uh, Because air is air. People are supposed to breath air" does not explain why human beings need oxygen!

[johnsonjunior]

I understand what you are saying D80 and I may be speaking out of turn here because I'm not American but I still think there is a difference. You don't see your prime minister as being the head of your country because you have a king. Americans don’t have a king so their president becomes not only their political leader but their national representative (head of state) as well.. No American would mind Bush’s politics being called into question. A democracy should not only allow that, it should encourage it. But I still think personal attacks should be kept to a minimum.

I accept that Thai’s might not mind me saying that Thaksin is insane but even if I thought that was true I would be uninclined to say so on this forum. The reason for that is that he was elected by Thai people to run their country and it’s totally up to the Thai people to run there country as they see fit. To insult your prime minister would be a little bit like coming round to your house and telling you your furniture sucks! Not very polite! (What sort of furniture do you have by the way – only joking!)

You may not know it but Australia has a monarchy too. The queen of England is officially our queen as well but most of us (most younger people anyway) don’t take that very seriously. Even the English rubbish her a lot. English news papers are always publishing demeaning articles about their royal family. If you ever get the chance, buy an English tabloid news paper (any one will do). You’ll be amazed (and probably disgusted – most intelligent people are!) by what you read.

There is much about your country that is different to mine. I like some of those differences, others I’m not quite so sure about. All of it is interesting. I’m looking forward to visiting Thailand again and I don’t expect to see angry Thai’s at my door. All I want at my door is friends.

See Ya

[SHUSIATULSE]

I think in most countries (with royalty or not), they hang the portraits of their kings or presidents and their family in homes. Important institutions like schools and public places also do that. Well i guess its a form of respect or perhaps remind the people of their nationality.

[obegeLype]

I have herd that the king of thailand is the most popular monarch in the world, he has been king for a long time and in away he is similar to the british monichy in that his power is very limited and all the realy tought and contraversal decitions are made by the elected democratic government of the day. Because he does not have to make any cotraversial decitions his public relations team can always make him out to be the good guy, but unlike the british monachy who has lost much of it's respect from the public in australia and britian because of there contraversial public lives.
The British Monachy has also lost respect because the poor people of britian have come to realize they are not getting very good value for money. The poor people don't think they should have to work so hard and use there taxes to support some one who is already wealthy and who's original wealth was aquired from stealing land off the pessant farmers. To me paying some one millions of ponds per year to live a luxury life is exsploting the poor people who pay tax to support there exstrasvigant life style.
Persionaly I like the king of thailand as he seems a very decent and respectable man and I hope he is king for a long time, but I not like seeing a million pesants in thailand begging for a living when there are some royals like the king that would be better if they were payed a nominal wage of say $US40,000 for doing this job and giving the rest to the money to the poor, and if they do not want to except the conditions of the job I would gladly do there job for this kind of money.

[Meerenuch]

Heated discussion!!! Hehehe

Calm down people....

The King of Thailand is held in such high esteem because it is part of Thai culture. Thai people are very protective of their king to an extent that they may even see him as holy and god-like.

Influenced by India and Bhraman tradition, 'the King' is seen as, how shall I describe this, almost like a higher being than a mere human being. He is king by birth right and he was born king because of some superior power/being will it to be so. This is the basic to the Thai culture of holding the king in such high esteem. Some people still believe that the king is literally a higher being from heaven who was born on this earth to manage the country. Also, in the past, Thai kings rule communities with smaller number of people (smaller populations) and could afford to be closer to them. They did have some sort of fatherly relationship with their people. So, Thai people also see their king as a sort of 'father figure' too. And such tradition still exists today.

Whether this is right or wrong, or whether it is in some way just idolising people or not, it is not my place to say.

Personally, I think the present king of Thailand has proven to be very hard working even when he does not really need to be. He travels to places where you would not have thought habitable, meet his people who live in extremely harsh condition and devotes his time to improve their living conditions. He was and still is responsible for lots of projects and schemes to improve the lives of a lot of Thai people over all.

I don't know if you know/remember this but the present king actually put a stop to a few political chaos in his time. I don't know if you know/remember the killing of innocent protesters by the military in Thailand in 'prurt-sa-pa-ta-min' quite a few years ago which forced the king to intervened I won't go into details now or I'll end up writing a book about it!). The King actually asked the two conflicting party leaders to sit in front of him and talk to them, finding out what was wrong and put a stop to the chaos. The discussion was televised all over Thailand and in some part of the world too. I saw part of this and really truly admire his skills in the matter. True, he is the king and could probably force people to just obey him. But he has done more than that.

This is why Thai people are so protective of their king and even an innocent question to this behaviour stir up lots of anger. The present king, in my opinion, has done a lot of things to deserved the respect from his people. I do admire him for many things he said/done. Whether there are any flaws with his ways or characters, I do not know and am not too interested. Personally, I admire him for what he has done and what he is still to do.

Thais see the king as totally different to political leaders (as officially, he doesn't really have political power, more like prestige) for the reasons I have expleained above. If you call the king insane, then I can guarantee a lot of angry Thais at your doorstep. If you really want to 'equal the insult' to George Bush and call Prime Minister Thaksin insane, then I don't think too many Thais will have a problem with you. You are not comparing like with like equating Bush & the king of Thailand. The King is not a political figure, he does not become king voluntarily. He is more of a sentimental figure to Thais and to attack him like you would a political leader would bring unpleasent results indeed.

It is just a cultural issue. One that foreigners seem to have really puzzled over (maybe because they do not have the same sort of institution). I have tried to explain as best I could. But whatever you think, take it from me, for your own safety, don't ever bad mouth the king of Thailand to Thai people or express doubt about him in anyway. It will definitely offend a large number of people. It is a supreme 'no-no' subject. Any negative view of the king of Thailand or any ideas challenging the Thais' view of the king, keep them to yourself for your sake. I know it might go against 'freedom of speech' and whatever, but trust me, you really don't want to go there!

[AlabamaBoyz]

Good to read that the tense mood in this thread has lighten up. .