The ‘Boys’ are back in town

7 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Thats ok, limited is the mind sometimes, your inexperience and naivety is understood.

 

Also consider it a 'Nameste Greeting'... not solely used by Buddhists, the placing of two hands together, similar to the Wai is common in other cultures, often with varied height, but the fundamentals are still there.... when you're a big boy you'll start to recognise this stuff. 

 

Now you know you'll see it used a lot more as a greeting, commonly amongst celebrities on stage addressing an audience etc.

 

 

In Thailand, the wai has Buddhist origins. I am not Buddhist so would consider it hypocritical and quite frankly, taking the P if I were to start wai-ing people. I've even seen farangs giving the wai to farangs, nothing but tossers.

I have spoken to a number of Thais about this, they don't see it as disrespectful for a farang not to wai, just a slight bowing of the head is sufficient.

You carry on pretending that you are Thai/Buddhist, forgive me for not being a fake.

There is also the fact that, sometimes, I see it as being subservient. I got into a lot of trouble at school for refusing to address the teachers as "Sir". I am subsevient to no man, never have been, never will be.

I find the wai as quite pathetic and outdated. It's all part of what holds Thailand back, blind subservience to your betters. They have no clue about the philosophy of "all men are born equal", I'm not prepared to perpetuate the myth of "elders and betters".