Are Thais Butchers?

[mike_rad]

I recall hearing that Thai Buddhists, the country's majority, do not become butchers, as Buddhism forbids the taking of life. The way they get around this (so as to ensure a constant supply of meat) is to have the Muslims be the butchers. Is this true? And what about fishermen?

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[473geo]

I recall hearing that Thai Buddhists, the country's majority, do not become butchers, as Buddhism forbids the taking of life. The way they get around this (so as to ensure a constant supply of meat) is to have the Muslims be the butchers. Is this true? And what about fishermen?

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I would say they kill chickens on the farms to eat on a regular basis.....they are bled....don't know if this counts??

Edit to add: I have also seen 3 live pigs brought to a celebration and killed cut up and cooked the night before by local Thai.....

one of the pigs ran off and had to be caught again....

Edited August 8, 2009 by 473geo

[IanForbes]

one of the pigs ran off and had to be caught again....

Some managed to make it all the way to Pattaya and disappeared into the bars...

My best guess on the OP's question is there are people in all walks of life who have different standards of how the animal kingdom should operate. Some people won't eat red meat but they'll eat chicken and fish. Some won't even kill insects. I tend to let people believe whatever they want, just so long as they don't try imposing their beliefs on me.

[garyh]

There is more than one form of Buddhism you don't see Thais avoiding stepping on ants, they kill fish birds, snakes, insects, pigs, buffaloe etc and think nothing of it.

[cdnvic]

I recall hearing that Thai Buddhists, the country's majority, do not become butchers, as Buddhism forbids the taking of life

Not necessarily. There are almost as many varieties of Buddhism as there are cuts of meat. Certainly they all frown on unnecessarily taking life, they do not forbid it outright as is often the misconception.

Edited August 9, 2009 by cdnvic

[Heng]

Yeah, and Christians don't covet, steal, start wars, and whatever the four or five deadly sins are.

[gburns57au]

It would be hard to find a Muslim in some Issan villages....

The way it works is that usually there are designated butchers in the villages....they have been granted absolution by the monks to allow them to kill animals for eating purposes.

They usually receive the first choice of the meat as payment.

As for the abbotoirs........not sure.....but Muslims only prepare meat as per Islam.....halal method and they wouldnt do well at handling Pork....I think it would be unlikely. Could be wrong though!

Strange about fishermen.....in the villages anyone can go down to the river and catch fish.....maybe fish isnt considered as an animal

Edited August 9, 2009 by gburns57au

[jackr]

I recall hearing that Thai Buddhists, the country's majority, do not become butchers, as Buddhism forbids the taking of life. The way they get around this (so as to ensure a constant supply of meat) is to have the Muslims be the butchers. Is this true? And what about fishermen?

Forget the fisherman. What about people? They seem to take each other out without a second thought to so-called Buddhist values!

[Heng]

I've known plenty of Girl Scouts that didn't sell cookies.

[garro]

I think that most Thais accept that breaking precepts involves some type of karmic payback. Many will view the current benefit as being worth the price paid at some later date. Few Thais seem to have any wish to become enlightened beings so see the occasional (or regular) breaking of precepts as no big deal. It is not the same as sin; for example if you are prepared to be hungover the next day then drinking is not seen as a problem for many - karmic debt repaid.

[sbk]

Lets drop the usual anti-Thai ranting that has already started. People are people wherever you live. One of the ten commandments is also thou shalt not kill and I don't see that has slowed alot of Christians down either. So, drop the utter negativity about all things Thai and lets be realistic about the true nature of human beings.

As for the OP's question about butchers, where I live many of the professional butchers are Chinese-Thai. But yes, people will kill a pig to eat. And no, very few muslims will handle pork. Much less kill a pig.

[Beardog]

I thought you were talking about the quality of work they do. They are most definitely butchers! As for actual killing of animals- I think most Thai's avoid the act as it has superstitious repercussions as well as is taught to respect life rather than take it in Buddhist culture. If your a farmer & got to eat I am sure there are exceptions.

[dondraper]

western society is more uptight about right and wrong. for example, going down a small soi i had a little fender bender with a parked, old pick up. as i parked and got out and looked at the minor damage i noticed that all the thais around were deliberately looking away even though they must have noticed. it seemed no point to wait around so i just left. i am sure the locals in the west would have chased me for blocks, pulled weapons on me, etc, to make sure i took responsibility for my mistake.

Edited August 9, 2009 by dondraper

[sriracha john]

I recall hearing that Thai Buddhists, the country's majority, do not become butchers, as Buddhism forbids the taking of life. The way they get around this (so as to ensure a constant supply of meat) is to have the Muslims be the butchers. Is this true?

Not true.

There are Buddhist butchers of pigs, cows, chickens, etc. although some Buddhists would not butcher a cow for religious reasons. There are also Buddhist sellers of these end-products although some Buddhists would not sell beef.

There are Muslim butchers of cows, chickens, etc. although a Muslim would not butcher a pig for religious reasons nor sell their end product pork. I don't know of any Muslim sect that allows an exception to that.

And what about fishermen?

There are Buddhist and Muslim fisherman and sellers of their end products.

[sunholidaysun1]

In my village they use a local hill tribe man (Akha) who has a gun. He shoots the pigs/cows in the head , then when dead the animals are drained of the blood to make Lab . Then the men of the village wash the animal then disect it into equal portions shared with the amount of people wanting to buy. The price goes up or down depending on the number of buyers.

As for the chickens I have never seen anyone in the village kill one , I think they just eat road kill.

[chiangmaibruce]

If your a farmer & got to eat I am sure there are exceptions.

I find it troubling when I read posts about people who can't find a vet who will put a terminally sick animal down. Surely this is an area where where there SHOULD be exceptions. I really hope I am never placed in this situation with regards to my pet.

[Geekfreaklover]

In certain parts of North East thailand any animal is considered fair game. I've seen people trap beautiful rare falcons and cook them up. I've seen rats being eaten sushi style (raw). I've seen tortoises tortuted with cigerettes and then prised from their shell and then boiled. Dogs are kept around the house until a special occasion (a wedding or funeral) prompts the family to kill it and eat it.

The Op's comment is so far of the mark as far as Isaan is concerned. Rural Isaan people like killing and then eating animals. All the villigers gather around to watch a cow or pig being slaughtered.

They think they are buddhist. In fact they are of a tribal animist brahm religion all wrapped up in an orange habit.

In Bangkok the situation is different. Here, we give our dogs names and take them to the vets and would never seriously consider eating them.

Edited August 9, 2009 by Geekfreaklover

[yabaaaa]

western society is more uptight about right and wrong. for example, going down a small soi i had a little fender bender with a parked, old pick up. as i parked and got out and looked at the minor damage i noticed that all the thais around were deliberately looking away even though they must have noticed. it seemed no point to wait around so i just left. i am sure the locals in the west would have chased me for blocks, pulled weapons on me, etc, to make sure i took responsibility for my mistake.

No u take the sensible approach leave a note on their car with your details and offering to pay. Treat others etc...........

[garro]

I'm a vegetarian, but I must admit being impressed by the attitude of Chuck Norris.

Chuck never goes hunting because hunting is associated with the possibility of failure; Chuck goes killing.

[473geo]

If your a farmer & got to eat I am sure there are exceptions.

I find it troubling when I read posts about people who can't find a vet who will put a terminally sick animal down. Surely this is an area where where there SHOULD be exceptions. I really hope I am never placed in this situation with regards to my pet.

Why pay a vet for drugs/call out when you can sell/give the dog to the dog man.....so no requirement in rural areas for putting dogs down......may not be the case in the city. Maybe why rural dogs are not given too much affection, names, etc. I used to feed one of the dogs around the house, when I had scraps left, I would whistle and he dog came from wherever for food. After a few months he was taken by the dog man.....apparently had been eating live chickens!!!........sale price 300baht.

[purplehaze]

Lets drop the usual anti-Thai ranting that has already started. People are people wherever you live. One of the ten commandments is also thou shalt not kill and I don't see that has slowed alot of Christians down either. So, drop the utter negativity about all things Thai and lets be realistic about the true nature of human beings.

As for the OP's question about butchers, where I live many of the professional butchers are Chinese-Thai. But yes, people will kill a pig to eat. And no, very few muslims will handle pork. Much less kill a pig.

This commandment has always been misinterpreted from hebrew and is "though shall not murder"

[visible]

I'm a vegetarian, but I must admit being impressed by the attitude of Chuck Norris.

Chuck never goes hunting because hunting is associated with the possibility of failure; Chuck goes killing.

I angree with you.

[mike_rad]

I recall hearing that Thai Buddhists, the country's majority, do not become butchers, as Buddhism forbids the taking of life. The way they get around this (so as to ensure a constant supply of meat) is to have the Muslims be the butchers. Is this true?

Not true.

There are Buddhist butchers of pigs, cows, chickens, etc. although some Buddhists would not butcher a cow for religious reasons. There are also Buddhist sellers of these end-products although some Buddhists would not sell beef.

There are Muslim butchers of cows, chickens, etc. although a Muslim would not butcher a pig for religious reasons nor sell their end product pork. I don't know of any Muslim sect that allows an exception to that.

And what about fishermen?

There are Buddhist and Muslim fisherman and sellers of their end products.

Ah, ok, thanks.

[dondraper]

when in rome.

Edited August 10, 2009 by dondraper

[oldsparrow]

They tend to hire Muslim as butcher for the meat can be classified Halal for Muslim customer.

When people don't kill cow or eat beef it's because they respect เจ้าแม่กวนอิม - The Chinese Godess, she rides on cow (or bull?). It's more common among Chinese-Thais. Some Thais may not eat beef on the reason that it's "big" animal and they don't like killing of big animal.

For me I eat any meat on the market and sometimes told friends that eating big animal means killing one once in a while but eating small animal means killing many in a day.

[Neeranam]

I met one monk who wouldn't kill mossies when meditating outside. He said something about suffering and how he couldn't kill.

Pretty ironic how Tesco Lotus sell those mosquito tennis raquets, and other things to kill animals in this perfect Buddhist country.

[garro]

Here are my thoughts on the whole Thai butcher fiasco;

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2...ons.html?cat=16

[mike_rad]

I met one monk who wouldn't kill mossies when meditating outside. He said something about suffering and how he couldn't kill.

It's different for monks, they have so many more rules (over 200) to follow. Ordained monks at Wat PaNanachat near Ubon are not even allowed to till the field as they may cause injury or death to insects and small animals.

Edited August 11, 2009 by mike_rad

[mike_rad]

Here are my thoughts on the whole Thai butcher fiasco;

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2...ons.html?cat=16

Interesting article, thanks.

You wrote, "They believe that bad karma can take years to get you back and it might not even occur in this current life. Some would be quite happy to do something ill-advised now, and accept that at some stage they will need to pay the price. Sort of like getting drunk and realising that you will need to suffer a hangover the next day. There is also the view that you can reduce the consequences of doing something wrong by doing lots of good as well. A sort of karmic balancing act."

The Buddha when explaining karma to his disciples asked them if a lump of salt was put in a cup of water would the water taste salty. They replied yes it would. He then asked if that same salt was thrown into the river Ganges would you be able to taste it. They replied in the negative. I think this is a good analogy, the idea being that if one has a large accumulation of good karma then a relatively small amount of bad karma would have minimal or inconsequential effect. Conversely, if one's karma reservoir is mostly negative, then a few good deeds is unlikely to eradicate the effects of that bad karma.