 Thailand is located at the meeting
point of the two great cultural systems of Asia Chinese and Indian.
In everyday life, Chinese culture has mixed very well with the Thai,
whereas in Thai court culture, which has been based mainly on Buddhism
and Brahmanism, India has exerted a strong influence. Thai culture
can be divided into 3 aspects: linguistic culture, court culture
and traditional culture.
Linguistic
Culture
The
Thai language, or Phasaa Thai, basically consists of monosyllable
words, whose meanings are complete by themselves. This alphabet
was created by King Ramkhamhaeng the Great in 1283 by modeling it
on the ancient Indian alphabets of Sanskrit and Pali trough the
medium of the old Khmer characters. After a history of over 700
years, the Thai alphabet today comprises 44 letters (including 2
obsolete ones), representing 20 consonant phonemes, and 15 vowel
signs, denoting 22 vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs. As Thai is
a tonal language with five different tones, it often confuses foreigners
who are unused to this kind of language. Like most languages of
the world, the Thai language is a complicated mixture of several
sources. Many Thai words used today were derived from Pali, Sanskrit,
Khmer, Malay, English and Chinese.
Court
Culture
Court culture refers to the conception of beauty perfection and
harmony in the fine arts, including painting, sculpture, architecture,
literature, drama and music. In the old days most of these originated
in or received the patronage of the royal court and nobility. Most
of the works served the Buddhist religion. Their styles were influenced
by the Indians through the Mons and Khmers, and then were blended
and developed in unique forms recognized as Thai.
Painting
Classical Thai painting is mostly confined to mural paintings inside
Buddhist temples and palaces They are idealistic and the themes
frequently depicted are those related to Buddhism, such as the Buddha's
life stories, stories of the tree worlds (heaven, earth and hell),
and also those concerning customs and traditions. The subjects of
the paintings reflect different purposes: to beautify and dignify
the places of worship, to promote Buddhism, and to educate people
trough pictures.
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