Thailand, known as "the country of thousands of buddhas" and "the country of yellow robe buddhas", is located in the middle of Indo-China Peninsula in Asia. With its charming natural scenery, friendly and hospitable humanistic atmosphere and rich historical atmosphere, it has become the leading tourist country in Southeast Asia.
Thailand is an ancient civilization with a Buddhist history of more than 2,000 years. In a beautiful and rich land, there are more than 30,000 ancient temples and magnificent palaces full of myths. Buddhist temples in Thailand are magnificent in appearance and beautifully decorated, enjoying the reputation of "Thailand Art Museum" and are the essence of Thai culture. The country's famous tourist attractions are: Bangkok Thailand Grand Palace, Jade Buddha Temple, Eight Treasures Bodhi Tree and Ancient City Museum.
Thailand is located in the tropics, and most areas have a tropical monsoon climate. It is hot all year round, which can be described as "four seasons like summer". Except for a few mountainous areas, the average annual temperature is generally around 27℃. The best season to travel to Thailand is from 1 1 month every year to 1 month the following year, followed by April to 1 month.
Country presentation
Thailand is a multi-ethnic country, composed of more than 30 ethnic groups, of which 40% are Thais, 35% are Laotians, 3.5% are Malays and 2% are Khmer. In addition, there are Miao, Yao, Guangxi, Wen, Karen, Shan and other mountain nationalities. Thai is the national language. Buddhism is the national religion of Thailand. More than 90% of the residents believe in Buddhism, Malays believe in Islam, and a few people believe in Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism and Sikhism. For hundreds of years, Thai customs, literature, art and architecture have been closely related to Buddhism. When you travel to Thailand, you can see monks in yellow robes and splendid temples everywhere. Therefore, Thailand has the reputation of "yellow robe Buddha country". Buddhism has shaped the moral standards for Thais and formed a spiritual outlook of advocating, forbearing, tranquility and peace-loving.
geographical position
The land area of Thailand is about 5 13 1 15 square kilometers. Indochina Peninsula in Asia borders the Gulf of Thailand (Pacific Ocean) in the southeast, the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) in the southwest, Myanmar in the west and northwest, Laos in the northeast and Cambodia in the southeast. Its territory extends southward along the crater isthmus to Malaysia, and its narrow part lives between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Tropical monsoon climate. The whole year is divided into three seasons: heat, rain and drought. The annual average temperature is 24 ~ 30℃.
folk custom
Buddhism is the national religion of Thailand, and 90% people believe in Buddhism. For hundreds of years, almost all aspects such as customs, literature, art and architecture have been closely related to Buddhism. In Thailand, all Buddhist boys, when they reach a certain age, have to cut off their hair and become monks, even the royal family is no exception. When you travel to Thailand, you can see monks in yellow robes and splendid temples everywhere. Therefore, Thailand has the reputation of "yellow robe Buddha country". Buddhism has shaped the moral standards for Thais, and made them form a spirit of advocating tolerance, tranquility and peace.
Way of getting along
Thailand is famous for its tolerance and hospitality. They show a smile and humility to everyone. Ordinary travelers can easily adapt to local customs. But here are some special tips:
Monarchy
Traditionally, Thais have deep respect for members of the royal family. Tourists should respect Tai Huang, Empress Dowager Cixi and their children. For example, every morning at 08:00 and evening at 18: 00, when the national anthem is played in public places, you should stand. If you attend a public place with members of the royal family, the best way is to observe and imitate the etiquette of the people present.
Religious microcosmic
Thailand's laws have many chapters on religious violations, including Buddhism and other faiths with the largest number of followers. All Buddha statues, big or small, intact or broken, are sacred. Please don't climb the Buddha The general requirement is not to "disrespect" the Buddha statue. Dress neatly when visiting Buddhist temples-don't be topless or wear shorts or sleeveless shirts. You shouldn't wear shoes to enter the temple hall where the Buddha statue is enshrined. Please take off your shoes at will. The floors of temple halls are generally clean. Buddhist monks are forbidden to contact with ladies. If you want to give something to a monk, you should first give it to a man to do it for him. A long-sleeved coat is buttoned to the neck and covered with a towel.
Social usage
Thai people will put their hands together when greeting, which looks like praying. Thais call it "wai". Generally speaking, some people will say hello to the elderly first, and then the elderly will return the gift together.
Thais believe that the head is the highest part of the body, and it is not allowed to pat anyone on the head, even as a friendly gesture. If you accidentally touch someone's head, you should apologize to him quickly.
Similarly, the foot is considered to be the lowest part of the body. Don't point your foot at people or objects. Don't touch anyone with your feet. Don't put your hands on the table or chair. Don't cross people's bodies, please walk around or politely ask them to move. When sitting on the floor, you should also keep your feet away from anyone.
It is unacceptable to show love in public. You may have seen some very westernized young couples holding hands, but this is only common in enlightened communities. In Thai society, losing your temper is the worst policy. Thais think this represents despicable behavior.
Folk art in Bangkok
Thai people are good at singing and dancing, with beautiful national dances and beautiful music. Accompaniment instruments mainly include drums, gongs, cymbals, boards, flutes, gongs, sheng and other folk instruments.
Thai dance and eyebrow folk dance are expressive and infectious, and the movements of the actors' fingers can also show many subtle emotional changes. Representative folk dances include interesting mask dance, jade finger flashing fingernail dance, candlelight firefly candlelight dance, sweet Wang Nan dance and so on. Watching Thai dance is one of the must-see programs when traveling to Thailand.
Thai dance with Ramochien as the theme is the most worthy of careful appreciation. The most famous Thai dance is "khon", which is performed by masked male dancers. "Lahong" and "Likai" are two popular branches of "Confucius House", and the difference between them is that performers don't wear masks. You can go to the National Grand Theatre and some hotels with cultural performances.
The nightlife in Bangkok is also colorful. In addition to all kinds of karaoke bars, discos, karaoke, KTV, band bars and other common entertainment places, there are a large number of public shemale performances, gay bars, emperor restaurants, Thai baths and other special entertainment places. It's really debauchery, dog and horse, doing everything possible.
Thailand's shemale performance is famous, unique, mysterious and fascinating. The nightclub in Lido, Bangkok provides a glimpse of the shemale performance.
Folk sports activities in Bangkok are extremely colorful, mainly including Muay Thai, rowing, elephant show, bullfighting and cockfighting. You can enjoy fierce Muay Thai in Rachadamunon Boxing Hall and Roubini Boxing Hall.
The ancient massage in Thailand is a part of Thailand's long history and culture, and it is also a precious cultural heritage. After hundreds of thousands of years of uninterrupted circulation, it has now become a tourist project in Thailand. In Thailand, almost every hotel has this service. In addition, places and people engaged in ancient massage, streets and alleys all over the country, and even remote island beaches have mobile massage personnel to provide this service, which is really amazing.
Authentic ancient thai massage can not only relax muscles and promote blood circulation, relieve pain and remove blood stasis, but also eliminate fatigue and restore physical strength. There are still many temples and schools offering special courses to teach the secret techniques of ancient thai massage.
In addition, the "massage hutong" in Suriwong block and the hot springs with horses in them can make people come here happily and go home with satisfaction; The Royal Thai Army is a good place to indulge in golf. The Royal Lawn Horse Racing Club is a paradise to relive the fun of horse racing. Royal City Avenu is a paradise for romantic nightlife. If you travel to Bangkok in winter, you will also have the opportunity to participate in the wonderful local marathon.
Thai culture
Thai culture has a long history, and literature, art and painting all have their own unique styles. The Thai government attaches great importance to safeguarding national culture, believing that Thai culture embodies national character, is an important foundation for safeguarding national unity, and has a decisive influence on the stability and prosperity of the country. King Bhumibol said: "Maintaining culture means defending the country".
Thai culture can be divided into three aspects: language culture, court culture and traditional culture.
language culture
Thai is basically composed of monosyllabic words, which was created by King Langanxing of Sukhothai Dynasty in 283 BC/KLOC-0 according to Hewen. After 700 years of history, Thai today consists of 44 consonants and 28 vowels. There are five tones, which are divided into secular language, royal language and monk language.
Because Thai is a phonetic symbol and tonal language with five different tones, it often confuses foreigners who don't understand this culture. For example, Suea's different tones represent different meanings: Suea's falling tone is a cushion and a cushion; Tone is clothes.
Like many other languages in the world, Thai is a complex and diverse mixture. Many words in Thai come from Pali, Sanskrit, Khmer, Malay, English and Chinese.
Characters are written in the form of comic strips, from left to right, horizontally, with no punctuation marks and no spaces between words. A sentence is spelled continuously from beginning to end, and a sentence is expressed by the space between two empty letters or a small pause in the sentence.
The printed letters of Thai letters are like notes on a staff. Most of the letters have small circles, so some people compare them to tadpoles. Thai is very similar to Cambodian and Lao.
Speaking of spoken and written Thai, its basic word order, like Chinese, is subject-predicate-object structure, but the biggest difference from Chinese is that modifiers follow modifiers. For example, we should say "this blue sock is really beautiful" and the word order should be "this beautiful sock", that is, in short, Thai adjectives should be placed after nouns and adverbs after verbs.
Palace culture
Palace culture refers to painting, architecture, literature, drama and music. In the past, the palace culture was mainly supported by the court and nobles, and most of its works served Buddhism. Its system was influenced by India and further integrated and developed, forming a unique Thai culture.
Painting: Thai classical painting is mostly limited to murals in temples and palaces, and the themes are all related to Buddhism, such as the life of Sakyamuni Buddha; The story of heaven and hell and related traditional customs. The main purpose of painting is to spread Buddhism, promote the development of Buddhism and inspire people.
Architecture: In addition to the buildings in the royal court, you can also see Thai classical architecture in pagodas and temples, which belongs to the category of Buddhism. Drawing on the architectural art of India, China and Myanmar, the Thai people have created their own unique architectural style-multi-storey roofs, towering spires, inlaid with wood carvings, gold foil, porcelain, stained glass, pearls and so on. Under the sunshine, these buildings exude brilliant artistic light.
Sculpture: The sculptures in Thailand mainly show Buddhist figures and elephants. In Thailand, there are many Buddhist figures who are made of wood, metal, ivory or rare stone tools and gypsum.
Literature: Early Thai literature was related to religion, kingship and nobility, and was expressed in the form of poetry. At the beginning of the 20th century, King Rama VI reformed Thai literature, and since then, prose has become a favorite writing form of Thai writers. In their works; It also describes ordinary daily life. One of the most important literary works is Rama Jian.
Drama: drama and dance in Thailand are inseparable. Dance originated in India, but the Thai people turned it into a slow and graceful movement. There are mainly Tainan dance dramas, folk dramas and court dramas in Dacheng Dynasty. Influenced by western operas, ancient operas, miscellaneous operas, singing operas and operas were added in the period of the fifth king of this dynasty. In the early days, dramas were usually staged in palaces and aristocratic houses, and ordinary people could only watch them in Buddhist programs.
Music: Thailand's classical music is fresh and euphemistic, with diatonic tunes, clear and slow rhythm and wide and deep range. Musical instruments play, pull, knock and blow in the temple. The instrument played is guzheng; Pull a string; Drums and cymbals are knocked; Play oboe and flute. Classical music is played in religious ceremonies, traditional ceremonies and programs. There are more than 1200 kinds of classical music in Thailand, which are divided into several categories according to their respective functions, such as elegy, anger, entertainment, Buddhist music, etc., and most of them are the accompaniment music of Rama Sword, which is rich in content.
traditional culture
Traditional culture refers to the customs related to agriculture, humanities and the craft of making daily necessities. Thailand's traditional customs are based on the family (composed of parents). Just like China and other Asian countries, young people should respect and obey the wishes of their parents, elders, teachers and monks. When it comes to traditional Thai culture, we can't help but mention temples and Buddhism. Buddhism has been circulating in Thailand for hundreds of years, which has deeply influenced the Thai people. Temples have become the centers of villages and towns, where people receive education, stay conscious and celebrate festivals. Now, due to the rapid development of science and technology, the traditional way of life has inevitably changed, especially in big cities. However, in the marginal areas where modern civilization has not penetrated, the ancient traditional way of life still remains to a great extent.