A limited view of a middle class living room

In previous blogs I’ve provided a detailed look at the inside of my studio apartment as well as a look at the room where a working class Thai girl lives by herself. Recently I had the opportunity to snap a few photos of the living room in a Thai home.

The home is inhabited by a Thai couple with no children. They are DINKS (double income no kids) with one of them working in a management position, and the other has a responsible job in an office. They have a comfortable life, with a 2 year old 4WD RV, two motorcycles and a modest home in Bangkok.

I didn’t have free reign to shoot the entire house, just some limited photos of the living area, concentrating on the wall decorations. While I would have loved to offer a view of the entire home, it wasn’t possible. I still think this limited view of the house has enough interesting points to write the blog, so here we go.

The desk here is a bit unusual from my experience, but a reflection of the fact that one of them works as a manager and needs a work space at home. Another unusual thing is that the photo of the King & Queen is the small portrait on the left. It is a bit difficult to see, but I have cut out an enlarged version here:

You’ll see that it is a drawing rather than a photo. It is also a casual scene that shows the King and Queen relaxing in their younger years. This is a sharp contrast to the stiff formal portraits that you see in most Thai homes and businesses. I actually like this particular picture; I wish that the monarchs were portrayed in this way more frequently.

The current King — Bumibol — is known to foreigners as Rama 9. He is immensely popular, and having been on the throne for more than 60 years, he is the longest reigning living monarch in the world.

His popularity in Thailand has only one rival — King Rama 5 — Chulalongkorn. He is universally adored in Thailand, and you are as likely to see his photo on display in private homes and businesses as you are the current King. The large photo behind the desk is a picture of Rama 5.

This photo has a prominent position in the living room. It is quite old, and shows the King in his younger years delivering something to monks. From memory he brought a box of medicine.

Below the photo of the King you can see a small garland of flowers. The ones in this photo look a bit faded, but typically they will be replaced every couple of days.

Today (Monday the 19th) is a holiday in Thailand, it is Visakha Bucha Day. Most Thais will call it “Big Buddha Day” when speaking in English, and it is one of the most important holidays on the Buddhist calendar. The date is actually defined in the lunar calendar as the the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the sixth lunar month. In Theravada Buddhism it is believed that Buddha was born on this date, that he achieved enlightenment on this date, and that he died on this date; a trifecta that even Samuel Clemens can’t quite match.

I went shopping today with a Thai girl, and she asked me yesterday to take her to the temple today so she could make merit. I had a specific list of tasks that I needed to take care of, and I didn’t finish them until about 6 pm, at which point I offered to take her to the temple as promised. She said it was too late, and rationalized that she had wai-ed as we passed the Buddhist Shrines near Central World Plaza earlier.

In any event, as we traveled back to my room in the taxi, she bought a garland of flowers similar to the ones you see in the photo above. When we got to my room, she made a nice little arrangement with them on my bed, then prostrated herself several times and did whatever it is that Buddhists do in those situations.

The flowers used are very fragrant and attractive. This girl has often brought them to my room and done a similar thing before going to sleep, but I think she made a special point of it today.

You kind of get used to it here.

Anyway, in the photo above you can see the flowers below the photo, as well as a little knick-knack shelf to one side.

This picture shows the nine kings of the Chakri dynasty. The full sized photo is very large; if you wish you can click on it to get a detailed view of it.

Again it has a fairly prime position on the wall of the living room, and by my count it is the fourth photo (out of four) that we have seen that is devoted to the Thai Monarchy.

One of the things that strikes me about this photo is that you can see the Thai lack of concern with aesthetics. The picture is a very nice piece in a very nice frame, but it is jammed up against the electric box at the top of the picture. Also I am a tall guy, and I was standing up straight when I shot this photo. You’ll notice that I was still shooting up at it. In other words, it wasn’t necessary to hang it so high and put it in such an awkward position. I suspect most Westerners would have made some attempt to re-position it so that it was a bit more artfully displayed.

My experience here is that Thais just don’t put a high premium on that kind of aesthetic issue. They are much more focused on the practical and expedient.

In fact, you’ll see that the photos behind the desk are hung high, with the photo of Chulalongkorn jammed right up against the ceiling. I didn’t ask the people who own the house, but it occurs to me now that it may be some sort of respect issue to make sure the photos of the Kings are hung as high as possible. I may try to check that theory later.

I think that these photos illustrate the influence that the Monarchy has on Thai people. I have never been in a Thai home or business that didn’t have at least one photo of the King on display.

In this particular living room there are no photos of the people who live in the house, and no artistic photos or painting. You’ll see in the photos to come that all the other decorations in the room are devoted to the other dominating facet of Thai culture: Buddhism.

It’s a bit difficult to see the details of the statue against the white background, but here atop the liquor cabinet is a Buddha shrine. The Buddha figure is beautifully carved from a dark wood, and surrounded by some attractive pieces. Hanging on the statue is another garland of flowers — again it is probably due for replacement later in the day.

There are so many details to be seen in this photo that I have left the original at a giant size if you care to inspect it. Just click on the photo above and wait a minute or two for the photo to download and you should be able to see some very detailed things.

There are two golden Buddha images prominently displayed in the photo, along with a picture of an elderly monk instructing a young boy. I suppose the boy might be the King or one of the grandparents of the people who own the house. I didn’t ask. But this sort of photo is not at all uncommon in Thai houses. Once again you can see a dried garland of flowers to honor the Buddha.

To the left, inside the glass, you can see a very typical photo of a particular elderly monk. Again, this is a common type of decoration in a private residence. Usually the monk in the picture will be someone that is admired by the family for some particular reason. Generally he will be thought to be especially holy, but occasionally he will have some connection to the family.
In the center of the photo at the bottom you can see some ceramic containers.

I don’t know if all of you would be aware, but Thais don’t bury their dead, they cremate them. In a ‘Meet the Parents‘ moment I thought that all of these ceramic containers might represent a generation of ancestors, but I was assured that this was not the case. The ancestors — seven of them at least — are all resting together in the family chedi in Ayutthaya.

I was given a detailed explanation of the cremation process that is probably worthy of a blog in itself. I will mention a couple of high points.

First, I was surprised to learn that Thais are normally cremated inside of a coffin. My only experience with cremation was my own mother who was cremated three years ago; she was resting on a pine board and wearing her favorite clothes when we saw her just before she went in the oven. I don’t know if this is normal in America or if we did it that way since it was only my sister and I who were present.

I also didn’t realize that it’s normal for some large pieces of bone to survive the burning. I’m not sure I was 100% clear on this part, but according to the lady who lives in this house, when you go to retrieve the ashes of your loved one, someone assists you by taking all of the larger pieces of bone, and laying them out in a pattern about the size of a GI Joe or Barbie doll, in the general form of a human body. When the remains are put to rest, they are in this particular arrangement.

I’m happy to have this story clarified if anyone knows more about it.

Second, I heard some details about chedis that simply reinforced what I knew already. Here is a photo of a very old chedi:

They range from extremely simple and rather small to opulent and massive.

A chedi holds the remains of cremated bodies here in Thailand. The people whose living room you are seeing have a family chedi, and they expect to have their remains go there to join their ancestors after they die. So the porcelain containers in the photo above are purely decorative.

On the right side of that particular photo you can see some miniature items, including a tiny elephant tusk, and a miniature 9 tiered umbrella (a symbol of Buddha or the King of Thailand).

I asked the couple if they had a spirit house, and they directed me to this small house. It is very different from the ones pictured in my recent blog that discussed spirit houses.

The husband in this couple is ethnic Thai, but the wife’s grandparents are from China. She is only second-generation Thai. Many of the decorations in the house as a whole, and much of the culture in their family has a distinctly Chinese flavor to it.

This is an example. Rather than a traditional Thai spirit house, this couple had a highly decorative Chinese piece in the back of the living room. You can see that it has some incense sticks in place, but they hadn’t yet set out any food or drink when I took this photo. they said they would be doing it in about another hour.

Once again you can see the disregard for aesthetics. Jammed in next to this beautiful and expensive Chinese piece is plenty of junk, making a bit of a clutter. I never cease being amazed at Thais’ tendency towards functionality over aesthetics in most things.

I wish I had more to show you, but those were all the photos I was able to take.

This is the front room — the one you enter from the street. It is the main entertaining room in the house.

You can see that it focuses on the two themes of Thai culture; Buddhism and the Monarchy are reflected throughout the room.

While I haven’t been in a lot of Thai homes, I’ve been in enough to say that this is a fairly common theme. I daresay there wouldn’t be a home in the Kingdom that wouldn’t have a picture of the King and Queen prominently displayed.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tiny peek at a Thai home. I’ll continue to ask friends and acquaintances to share their living spaces through photos, and whenever possible, show you more completely how Thais live.

Happy Visakha Bucha Day!