Death In Thailand

“Death” is a very Thai topic. Thais love the morbid, bloody and the shocking – or don’t they? Thais’ odd fondness for a very own cult of a very own danse macabre is legendary. Just have a look at the front page of a local tabloid.

Thais have a more natural, more relaxed relation with death? Take a Thai funeral. Most turn out to be a community-event lasting for days. Compare this with a classic Western funeral where the all important work of mourning is more of a clinical procedure.

Call Thais more pragmatic. “Thais, compared to foreigners,” writes Thailand’s Lost Boy Matt in this post, “seem to be able to better face the realization that we will all, at some point, die.”

By Matt, Thailand’s Lost Boy*

About two years ago, I went t eat lunch next to Olympia Tower in Bangkok with a couple of work colleagues. We arrived at our usual haunt to be greeted by a small crowd of policemen and other onlookers.

We sat down for lunch and watched as a man about 10 meters from us picked up a dismembered leg. Near it was a dismembered foot. We ate lunch as usual, dazed by the display of human body parts. No attempt had been made to shield the grim display from passers-by. The owner of the restaurant looked shaken, but she carried on as normal.

The leg and the foot, it transpired, belonged to murdered school teacher Dissanee Thongnarkthae.

That was my first real experience of death in Thailand, but it was not to be the last. There is a misconception that Thais aren’t disturbed by death. A few months ago, I was in Phuket, riding in a car with a couple of Thai friends, when we saw a man lying in the middle of the road.

As we moved closer, we saw that his neck was neatly wrapped around a lamppost. He was dead, of course. Our driver, a young Thai girl, was shocked by the sight and lost her composure for a long while after.

Just because Thais are more accepting about facing death than Westerners doesn’t mean that death doesn’t upset them. It does – greatly. I was on the scene last year when a plane crashed at Phuket International Airport, killing 89 people.

If you had seen the reactions of people as they found out that their friends and loved ones had died, you would never again think that Thais have a blasé attitude to death.

Death is everywhere, from the front page of newspapers to movies and television. What’s different in Thailand compared to the West is that images of death in pop culture are less taboo. Death is not handled with kid gloves; it’s put out there for all to see.

Thais, compared to many foreigners, seem to be able to better face the realisation that we will all, at some point, die. Such an understanding, however, is not to be confused with putting death in a positive light.

There is also a huge difference in seeing a picture of a dead body in a newspaper compared with seeing the dead body in real life. Thais are good at dissociating themselves from images of death in photographs and on a screen, but when it’s real, something seems to click.

No doubt most readers here will have experienced death in some shape or form while in Thailand. It would be great to hear some other thoughts on this subject.

* This post was penned by Matt from Phuket Vogue and Thailand’s Lost Boy.




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June 28, 2008 | Filed Under Being Farang, Health, Body & Mind, The Thai Mind 

Comments

One Response to “Death In Thailand”

  1. JJ on June 28th, 2008 8.39 pm

    Bangkok is constantly on the verge of some doom and demise. Not that people here don’t suffer, they handle pain and loss just differently. Deeply convinced that there’s a reason for everything.

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