Learning to negotiate rural Thailand

James and I have been facilitating a seminar with the students we will be traveling with in Thailand and India.  Last week we had a speaker, Judy Pine, an anthropologist who has spent significant time living in rural northern Thailand, near where we will spend the bulk of our time.  A few things we learned.

First, it is rude to sit with your legs crossed so that your foot points toward another person.  The bottom of your foot is considered unclean so you don't want to point it toward someone.

Second, when speaking to someone of higher status than you (an elder, a person of greater rank) the top of your head should be below the top of his or her head.  The top of the head is the most sacred part of the body.  This means that if you are tall, you might spend quite a bit of your time bent low.

We also learned how to bath at the public well, since most of the time we will not be in areas with indoor plumbing.  It's a complicated procedure involving tubular sarong like garments.  You put one on and get wet and soap up (reaching inside the sarong to wash).  After rinsing, you drop another dry sarong over the top of the wet one, and let the wet one drop to the ground.  I just hope I can negotiate this procedure without an embarrassing incident!

Finally, we are learning a children's song (about an elephant).  She says it's kind of like "Row, Row Your Boat."  Everyone knows it, and she says they will be delighted if we can sing it.  A good entree to make conversation.

Marie