About Thai

Introduction | History | Festival | Religion | Monarchy | The Thai Family | Thai Food

The oldest, smallest and, without a doubt, one of the most important units in Thai society is the family. Since the dawning of Thai history, it has been the family unit and respect for the family system that has united Thai society, enabling it to survive the tests of time in peace and harmony.

Traditionally, the Thai family is an extended family, with several generations living under one roof, or at least under several roofs within the same compound. It is the centre of education, finance and administration in their most basic forms; and it is under the family roof that the Thai child learns codes of behavior that will guide him throughout much of his later life, whether it is spent in a rural village or a cosmopolitan city.

One of the prime responsibilities placed on children is that of taking care of parents in their old age, a prominent feature of the Thai concept of family. There is no feeling of being inconvenienced by this duty of caring for aged parents; on the contrary, their acquired wisdom gives them an honoured place in the household, and their counsel is actively sought in teaching their grandchildren and great-grandchildren to be responsible adults with the same traditional values.