Siam's Inimitable Traditions

Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia that was never taken over by a European power, thanks to King Mongkut and his son King Chulalongkorn. Ruling successively from 1851 to 1910, they modernized the county and signed trade treaties with Britain and France. It is known as a mystical place bathed in Buddhist philosophy, they do have much rituals and special occasions on their lives.
Siam’s Customs and Traditions presented in the 1998 award-winning film ‘Anna and the King’ starred by Yun Fat – Chow as King Mongkut and Jodie Foster as Anna Leonowens were much more detailed than others.
Siam (Now Thailand) has customs and traditions that are quite hard to understand especially if you’re from a Western Country. This is the main reason why King Mongkut and Anna always clash. Since her first day in the palace, the both of them oftentimes disagree on a certain things.
First thing we had realized is that Siamese believed that elephants are holy animals. In the film, they have a festivity, because according to the palace, someone saw a white elephant and it means something good awaits them or they are blessed. In their country, white elephants also mean a lot to them especially in their government which signifies prosperity, peace, wisdom, and purity. The king is the one who manage to such occasions since he is the most powerful person in the country
Furthermore, no one is allowed to stand within the King’s presence, thus they must bow and their foreheads must touch the floor. Funny part in the film when the palace tries to imitate British style, the servants didn’t know what to do when the king came in and their hands were full of breakable stuffs, they don’t have any choice but to bow their heads and ignore all the items being broken. We can see to it that they really respect their superior in any instance. Servants do really show respect to their king, they obey rules without any complains. For every fault there is an equivalent punishment right away, which means, disobeying the dignity of the king suffers.
Another thing is that the eldest son shall inherit the throne. This explains why Prince Chulalongkorn inherited the throne during the latter part of the movie. It is normal to their King to have as many children as he wanted, though also in having wives (concubines) are included in their tradition.
In their wedding ceremony, instead of an engagement ring, gold is used as a symbol of a marriage as seen in a ceremony for the king and Tuptim.
And during Rice Festivals, the king would bless the crops, thus, the people of Siam sees the king as he is a god.


Only few traditions were presented in the film, but those are very useful and enlightening.