Thai people

“ As regards the rights and liberties of the Thai people, in addition to the rights and liberties as guaranteed specifically by the provisions of the Constitution, a person shall enjoy the rights and liberties to perform any act which is not prohibited or restricted by the Constitution or other laws, and shall be protected by the Constitution, insofar as the exercise of such rights or liberties does not affect or endanger the security of the State or public order or good morals, and does not violate the rights or liberties of other persons. ”

“ Sovereign power belongs to the Thai people. The King as Head of State shall exercise such power through the National Assembly, the Council of Ministers and the Courts in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution. ”

“ This Thai family includes the Shans proper, and the Siamese. The name Lao, which appears to mean simply “man,” is the collective Siamese term for all the Thai peoples subject to Siam, while Shan, said to be of Chinese origin, is the collective Burmese term for those subject to Burma. Lao is therefore rather a political than an ethnical title, and the people cordially dislike the name, insisting on their right to be called Thai. Owing to the different circumstances which have attended their migrations, the Thai peoples have attained to varying degrees of civilization. ”

“ Secoundly, That they daunse not, as the Philisteanis thair fatheris, for the pleasur that thai tack in the displeasur of Goddis people. For yf any of boyth thai do, as thai shall receave the reward of dansaris, and that willbe drynk in hell, onless thai spedilie repent, so shall God turn thair myrth in suddane sorow: for God will not alwayes afflict his people, neither yitt will he alwayes wynk at the tyranny of tyrantis. ”

“ Introduction Thailand Background: A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. In alliance with Japan during World War II, Thailand became a US ally following the conflict. Thailand is currently facing armed violence in its three Muslim-majority southernmost provinces. ”

“ A lively resistance to the usurpers continues, inside Thailand and through her spokesmen abroad; we may confidently expect that the Thai, with the aid and sympathy of their friends of the United Nations, will at the earliest opportunity rid themselves both of their quislings and their Japanese overlords, again proudly to style themselves "the free men." ”

“ Thais with a disposition and willingness to scrutinize their own cultural suppositions were rare but for those who were so inclined to repugn family and Buddha, if only in outward aloofness and tacit pondering, little remained sacrosanct from intellectual dissection except for issues in reference to the king, for to cease to revere him would make one something other than Thai. ”

“ Their serious probing of life and their awareness of the geyser of unique thoughts that erupted in them certainly didn’t seem Thai. A typical urban Thai yearned to languish if not extinguish himself or herself in strolls in a shopping mall, a movie, a video game, laughter, cellular telephones, beer, and comic books. Jatupon did pursue the pejorative in comic books as most Thai males from five to fifty and the two of them were pursuing their quest of leisure as lazily as the best of Thais ”

“ All upper class Thai darkees are the same. Cleansed and made beautiful and white by money they are a vain lot—solitary cowards behind face fortresses. They are like the Chinese in that sense, and both Thai lightees and darkees with money pretend to be of a higher species. They try to avoid foraging, disease carrying primates like me. Their fortresses are built from fear that lack of money will make them have to acknowledge that they are merely hairless monkeys—no more special, no more potential to matter than any animal. ”

“ The Laotian smiled. "I didn't write the receipt. Did you go up into the monument."
"No, just stayed here. What's up there?"
"I don't know. What's up there? Poor people trying to sell their trinkets, souvenirs if you want to call it that. Junk for westerners to remember their trip to Laos. All of it is the same as in Thailand. Nothing that would interest you unless you want a little better view of the city."
"I see. Then I guess not."
"You don't want to be a spectator of poverty?" ”

“ Free to contemplate the unequal plight of man (or woman as it was in his case) , to see color in forms and feelings and thought, to mix with forms by allowing licentious whims to twist around the kite in accordance with natural mandates to reign in those turbulent skies, he basked in others perceptions of him as handsome, successful, and affluent. Like juicy fruit on the stem, his days in the sun, as an elated appetite of women and an envy of men—at least for those who knew something about contemporary Thai art—were embarrassing and awkward to the modest Jatupon that he was ”

“ Whenever we limit our attention only to the cultural area or only to the linguistic area, or to only one of them at a time, we do so at our peril. There is no language without meaning, and there is no culture without words. Nevertheless, this synopsis will violate that principle by concentrating entirely on the mechanics of speaking Thai. It is addressed primarily to native speakers of English who expect to live in Thailand, and gives a bird's-eye-view of the tasks they will encounter in their study of the language. ”

“ May all the Thais be of one mind and united in preserving and observing the Constitution unanimously, in order to enhance the permanent peace, happiness, and well-being of His citizenry. May the members of the royalty, either senior or junior, the public servants, both civil and military, as well as the people under His authority, uphold unity, in order that the regime of democracy should stay well and beside the State of Thailand, the Royal Land, till the end of the epoch, in accordance with His great royal wish. ”

“ Among them exist the purest types of the Thai race. They are found all over the province of Yunnan and in the borderland between China and Burma. Politically, where not under the direct control of Chinese magistrates, the tribes are organized under their own chiefs, who are recognized by the Chinese government and endowed with official rank and title. ”

“ It was like a homeless bottle collector pushing an unwieldy cart away from him or, if it could be transmuted to sound, that of a man repudiating his own impecunious past. Hadn't that faded memory of a mother once told him that thunder was a diamond falling from some goddess when struggling in the heavens against a diminutive monster?—he could not remember any of the specifics; hadn't some uncle in the United States of America, the country of his birth, once told him that thunder was the sound of Thai monkeys angrily tossing coconuts from coconut trees in the hope of getting to the bananas? ”

“ The political aspect of the program leaned heavily toward economic nationalism, in an endeavor to counteract the excessive proportion of foreign capital in the country and to encourage more active participation by the Thai in the building-up of their own land. ”

“ Thais replied reprovingly. "See, the world is beautiful!"
They stood in silence for a moment, gazing at the scene, which was indeed beautiful, as Thais had said. On three sides the sea flashed and sparkled with white-capped waves before the southwest wind. On the east a channel, half a mile in width, divided the mainland from the island upon which the new city was built. Beyond the strait lay the city of Old Tyre, with its wide circle of walls. ”

“ However refreshing this acrimony so unencumbered by Thai-Laotian etiquette was, it was not worth dying for; and so he retreated for a few moments on his bunk until dangling once again with an opened can of beer.
He thought again how this stranger defied the obsequious norm with a refreshing brashness that was like having cold water thrown into his face. But like a fish that was suddenly snagged on a hook, images of himself in poverty, which he did not care to recall, caught him within. His pleasure in the stranger waned as impressions of beings and beings themselves waned. ”

“ It is supposed that the Thai race boasts of representatives across the whole breadth of Indo-China, from the Brahmaputra as far as the gulfs of Siam and Tongking; that it numbers among its members not only the Shans proper, the Laos and the Siamese, but also the Muongs of French Indo-China, the Hakas of S. China, and the Li, the inhabitants of the interior of the far Eastern island of Hainan in the China seas. But no exhaustive survey of the Thai has yet been accomplished. For the purposes of Burma they may be divided into the N.W., the N.E., the E. and the S. Shans. ”

“ Pleasant relations between Thailand and Cambodia, the countries which have been neighbours and close acquaintances of each other as if being brothers and sisters since former times, have declined of late. Following the unsuccessful demand for the Phra Wihan Mount, part of the Thai territory, to be relinquished to Cambodia, Thailand has become the target of continuous attacks by broadcasting radio and newspapers in Phnom Penh, despite His Majesty's Government having done nothing to the detriment of Cambodia at all. ”

“ To forfeit 4000 baht, a hundred dollars, borrowed from various sources to pay the owner in the event of stealing something, an impossibility with video monitored stores, breaking something, as though a carton of milk had such a price, or running away, which of course they could do as modern day slaves with the power to walk away but no predominant will to do so, to work 14 hours a day for a mere five dollars, 170 baht; to be paid only if the acting manager liked his or her job performance and signed a document in Thai attesting this fact, they would be elated to gain such an opportunity. ”

“ Dysfunctional families might be more prevalent in Thailand than most people believed but their members could ignore this fact unless they belonged to extreme cases, and under the "good deeds beget good deeds" philosophy of the Buddhists a wretch like him must have done something monstrous indeed to know nothing but the breaking of family. With virtually everyone paying homage to fathers and all genuflecting to majesty there was such loneliness for members of extreme cases on such a day. ”

“ Attracted by curiosity, the crowd increased unceasingly, and soon it was known that Thais had been persuaded by the Abbot of Antinoe to burn her riches and retire to a nunnery.
The shopkeepers thought to themselves—
“Thais is going to leave the city; we shall sell no more to her; it is dreadful to think of. What will become of us without her? This monk has driven her mad. He is ruining us. Why let him do it? What is the use of the laws? Are there no magistrates in Alexandria? Thais does not think about us and our wives and our poor children. ”

“ They are husbandmen, shepherds, and hunters. [450]
It is perhaps among the Siamese that the primitive Thai type has been most changed by intermixture with the Khmers, Kuis, Hindus, and Malays. In stature above the average (1 m. 61) , very brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 85.5) with olive complexion, they have prominent cheek-bones, lozenge-shaped face, and short flattish nose. They are fervent votaries of southern Buddhism, and are the most civilised of the Thai. ”

“ The Laotian burst out in a laughter which started out as a mild guffaw before burning away any acrimony against opulent Bangkokians, their ignorance, and more specifically, this rich Thai's obtuseness, to become a pleasant and embracing cacophony of good will.
Nawin noticed a blanketed entity at his feet that puzzled him and made the reason for the laughter cease to matter. Then the Laotian spoke and the blanketed one who was half on the floor and the two seats before the window was forgotten.
"So, a rich man like you doesn't know where elephants are kept but then why would you? ”

“ A person who falls under article 1 and is born in the Kingdom of Thailand following the entry into operation of this Revolutionary Council Announcement shall not acquire Thai nationality, save where the Minister of Interior finds appropriate and gives a different order with individual effect. ”

“ If the houses of the Thai (in which for the moment we may include the Siamese and Laos together) are in the city badly situated in swamp and jungle, and badly kept in repair, the houses of the Chinese are very different; they are the flourishing part of the community. There are some thousands of them here and in the neighbourhood, nearly all shopkeepers, and outside the west gate, and along the main trail on each side, they have a regular village. The street is narrow between the open shop-fronts, and the road paved with baulks of timber. ”

“ The opulence of Bangkok might entice poor school girls in uniform to become whores of old Chinese-Thais and straight men to be serpentine prostitutes, but few were the Buddhists who would kill their servants of their pleasures. Still, even with the probability of being snug and secure in his den of decadence, the croaking of those incessant frogs outside ensured that no sleep was possible for a city dweller who deemed traffic to be a purr when hearing the harangue of the jungles. ”

“ Eastern Thailand is a huge, shallow, elevated basin, tilted toward the east, so that while its western rim stands 1,000 feet above the sea, its eastern rim is formed by low hills. The plateau is watered by the system of the Me Nam Mun, a tributary of the Me Khong. A poverty-ridden country of unproductive soil and adverse climatic conditions, it supports indifferently well a comparatively limited population. ”