Individual Life Cycles

            A Thai baby officially becomes “someone” after its name is chosen-frequently by the village abbotand entered in the village head’s records. Soon after birth the child will be given a nickname, nearly always of one syllable. Intimates will continue to call him or her by this nickname for the rest of his life and may indeed have to think for a while to remember the proper name

            Childhood is a carefree, cosseted time. By the age of four, children regularly meet to play beyond the family compound, with boys and girls generally segregating and roaming freely throughout the village. Boys play make-believe games, fly kites, plow imaginary fields, and hunt insects and harmless reptiles. Girls nurse makeshift dolls, “sell” mudpies in make-believe markets, play games emulating their mothers, and look after younger brothers and sisters.

            Gradually the children are drawn into work patterns. Around eight years of age, girls give increasing help with household chores and boys assume greater responsibilities such as feeding domestic animals and guarding the family buffalo as it grazes or wallows.

            Children attend the government village school to be taught from a standard nationwide curriculum. They acquire varying degrees of literacy and study Buddhist ethics and Thai history. All receive a comprehensive education and by coming into contact with neighboring villages’ children and visiting the provincial capital on school trips they enjoy a broadening of social experience.

            Having assumed ever-increasing workloads and responsibilities, youths of 15 and 16 are already regarded as fully mature adult laborers. Between graduation from school and marriage at around 20, most village males go into the monastery, usually for the duration of one rainy season, in order to make merit for themselves and their parents; in some areas a man who has never been a monk is avoided by marriageable girls, who regard him as a khon dip, literally an “unripe person.”

            The village girl’s entrance into adolescence is a gentle one. Courtship is confined initially to communal work groups during planting and harvesting and at monastery centered festivals and activities. There may be extensive banter between boys and girls but, individually, young people tend to be shy and “whirl-wind courtships” are exceedingly rare. Emotional relationships mature showly and customarily involve chaperoned meetings at the girl’s house.

            Most young people select their own marriage partners. Rarely is parental disapproval voiced since marriages often take place between families within the same village, further strengthening and widening communal ties. A marriage is sometimes presented as a fait accompli by children who work in towns or cities and are thus beyond parental control. In many parts of the country it is the custom for the groom to move in with the bride’s family, thus providing extra labor for the family fields and also avoiding friction between mother and daughter-in-law.

            Early in the morning. In accordance with traditional Thai belief that married life should begin with merit-making, the bride and groom feed village monks and present them with small gifts In return, the monks bless the couple and the house or room where they will live.

            The village marriage ceremony bestows no official validity on their union but is merely a public proclamation that the two people will live together as man and wife. The young couple’s wrists are ceremoniously bound together in the presence of village elders and they are led to the marriage chamber as guests feast, drink, sing, and dance, later their marriage is officially registered at the district office and becomes a fact of law. Daily tasks are generally divided equally between husband and wife. Women normally do the household chores, but they work in the fields during planting and harvesting. Men perform heavy tasks and fieldwork, fetch water, and occasionally clean their own clothes. Thai village men are often very good cooks and sometimes help prepare the food for festivals.

            After marriage, every couple eagerly awaits the birth of its first child, which usually comes during the first year. Children have a high position in rural and cultural values, since there is strength in numbers, a vital sense of continuity is ensured, and many hands make farming activities easier. Often there exits an unspoken preference for boys since they alone may be ordained as priests to gain merit for themselves and their parents, but no love is withheld if the child proves to be a girl.

            Everyday village dress is simple. Men generally wear shorts, a simple shit, and their versatile phakhaoma- a checkered rectangle of cloth loosely worn around the waist which, at a moment’s notice, can serve as a turban for protection against the sun, a loincloth to preserve modesty during public bathing, a sweat-aborbing towel, or a hammock.

            Women wear the phasing (the Thai version of the sarong) and a simple blouse or bodice. Children wear similar clothing as their parents except when they are dressed in their school uniforms.