Living in Thailand [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION A lacquer cabinet of the Ayutthaya period, now displayed in the National Library and regarded as one of the finest examples of Ayutthayan craftsmanship. The detail shown represents a stem of rice with uarious animals and symbolizes the abundance of the Thai countryside. PREVIOUS PAGE: Detail from the gable of Wat Phra That Luang in northern Thailand. The special style that defines a culture is born of many elements. Thai style, so vividly revealed in its art and architecture, is the product of its distinctive landscape, its skillful use of varied influences, and a history unique among the nations of Southeast Asia. Thailand today is a multi-faceted kingdom of 50 million people, most of them Thai in the ethnic sense but many of them Chinese, Malay, Indian, Khmer, and other races who have played important cultural roles. It is also a kingdom of contrasts: new and old styles coexisting, now and then subtly merging in ways that often enchant, sometimes surprise, and occasionally bewilder an outsider. Buddhist temples encrusted with ornate decorations, baroque fantasies at once witty and otherworldly, rise on crowded city streets, and during lulls in the traffic din you can hear the faint music of bells and the soothing sound of monks chanting. Along rivers and canals, motor boats speed past plain but striking traditional houses, their graceful peaked roofs silhouetted against the pale tropic sky. In the market places of the far north, amid tape recorders, plastic pails, and other artifacts of the modern world, you will find tribal people in bizarre costumes of medieval splendor. The King of Thailand now lives in a wholly Western palace, adorned with the communications antennae through which he keeps in touch with his farflung projects around the country, but within the same compound reside the royal white elephants,