the culture in Burma and Thailand

Today, in my blog, I want to talking about the different country’s interesting culture. I will explain the different culture in different aspects. Like the life style, the Men’s and Women’s social status, the wedding style and so on. The countries that I want to talk are Thailand and Burma.

First, I want to talk about Burma, the reason why I write about Burma is because my other class’s teacher played a video for us about Burma’s special culture, that made me have interest in Burma. There are four points that I want to introduce about Burma. For the first point, I want to explain the wedding culture in Burma. In the traditional ways, Burma people cannot marry during April 15^th to July 15^th, because in the four months, Buddhist monks are in the nestle, the people in Burma think that during this period time to have a wedding is ominous. Also, they did not support the people marry during September, October, and December. They think the people who married on September will infertility all the time, they would not have the descendant in the future. If the people marry in October, this family will go broke. If the people marry in December, they will live apart all the time, and they will not get together in the future. In addition, the people who attend the wedding cannot will the blue gray and black clothes, that can bring the ominous things. For the second part, I want to talk about the Thanakha which is my favorite part. Thanakha means the white painting in women’s face.  It’s actually a Burmese traditional cosmetic named Thanakha, which most of Burmese females use to protect their skin and for beauty purpose. (Why do Burmese Women Have White Faces. ND) There are some ways about Thanakha, for the children or the unmarried woman, they always put the white painting on the two buccal and nose, for the people who married, they put the white painting only on the two buccal. The reason why Thanakha prevail is that is a traditional. Also, the weather in Burma is hot, the temperature up to 30-40 degrees in the summer, so they think Thanakha can help them avoid the sun sunburn, and Thanakha smells good, like a kind of Fragrance. The third point I want to illustrate is the unequal social status in Burma. People were divided into four kinds of social status, the top status is monk, second is men, third is woman and Buddhist nun, the lowest statue for Burma is hemophrodite(lady boy).  The last point I mentioned is that the people whoever men or woman in Burma do not have the last name. It is different with other countries. Burmese people usually doesn’t have family name. Some people only goes with a few syllables in their names and some with single syllable. (Lionslayer, April 2011) They always add an appellation in front of their own name, in order to show the gender, pecking, social status and position.

          Second, I want to talk about Thailand’s culture through the different aspects. The first and second points are about the taboos in Thailand, please read be careful. For the first point I want to explain is my own experience. Maybe five years ago, I went to the Thailand with my mom, you know that, temples in Thailand is very popular, not only the local people lay emphasis on it, but also other country’s people travel to the temples first when they are in Thailand. I remembered that, when I came to the temples with my mom, the tour guide emphasized many times that when we saw the monk who wear yellow clothes, we must be far away from them. When I asked the reason, the tour said in the monk’s view, men and women are different species, they cannot touch each other, this is their faith. I asked the tour guide, what if we touch the monk? He said some of the monk would commit suicide, they see this kind of belief as a very serious part in their life.  The second point is that do not touch the people’s head in Thailand, it is really impolite!!!the local people in Thailand think head is the highest part in their body, they are not allowed other people to touch or flat their head, although this action is a way of showing the friendship in your country, you cannot do it. Also, in the same meaning, they think the feet is that the feet are the lowest part in a people’s body, so it is unrespecting to point others with feet or put your feet on the desk or table. They also think that take something up their head is an insult.  Another point shocked me which is the male in Thailand can have up to four wives. Prior to October 1, 1935 polygamy freely practiced in Thailand. The old family law classified wives into three categories, according to the way they become wives (Jamnarnwej W, ND). This is the first time for me to heard that male can have up to four wives in the modern world. In my mind and view, I think male only can have one wife.

In conclusion, I really like to look up the different website to find the different custom and different country’s culture, it is really interesting. If I know many country’s taboos and life habit, it can help me to broaden horizons and when I go there in the future, I will not touch the taboos, it is a way of politeness. I hope you also can have the awareness about different country’s culture.

 

 

Sources:

http://www.exoticvoyages.com/travel-blog/why-do-burmese-women-have-white-faces

http://lionslayer.yoeyar.com/?p=663

http://www.thailawforum.com/articles/familywimol2.html