THAI CULTURE oakland 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 hngulstic culture court culture and traditional culture.
Linguistic Culture
The Thai language or Phasa Thai, basically consists of monosyllable words, whose meanings are complete by themselves Its alphabet was created by King Ramkhamhaeng the Great in 1283 by modelling it on the ancient falling tone) which means a tiger, a mat and clothes respectively like most languages of the world the Thai language is a complicated mixture of several sources Many Thai words used today were derived from Pasa Sansaknt 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 organated in or received the patronage of the royal court and nobility Most of the works served tile 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 stones of the three 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 through pictures Architecture Apart from the royal palace buildings classical Thai architecture can be found In monastic monuments-pagodas and temples-which have been tile focal points of Thai community activities for centuries admitting Indian Khmer and other influences such as Chinese and Burmese Thai Indian alphabets of Sanskrit and Pall through the mediam 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 triphthcngs As Thai is a tonal language with five different tones, it often confuses foreigners who are unused to this kind of language For example, thev have difficulty in dlstingmshing these 3 words from each other เสื้อ sue: with rising tone) เสื้อ (sues low tone) and เสื้อ (suea,falling tone) which means a tiger,a mat and clothes respectively.
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.