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	---> MORE Thai Proverbs: _________________________________ Keeping your head down Standing the World on its Head Beware of Appearances Keeping Your Head Down When the Cat's Away You've Got to be Stupid Before You Get Wise Measuring Someone's Footprint Be compliant! Snake Snake Fish Fish Bid Tong Lang Phra - To do good by stealth The Menacing Tiger Little birds nest according to their size Keeping Your Head Down The Chameleon That Lost Its Head Out of Pride Wisdom come from Stupidity Follow the old, and the dogs won't bite you LOOKING AT THE TSUNAMI DISASTER Measuring Someone's Footprint One drop of honey Keeping Your Head Down Avoiding Victory Blame and Responsibility Beware of Appearances When the cat’s away, the mice play Water, water everywhere…

Be compliant!

Thai people tend to be passive. That's what you're told in many of the guidebooks. In contrast to the westerner's proactive attitude, Thais are presented as being pretty slow to act, prefering to smile while waiting for an order before doing something.

To be fair, this is not a big national negative trait. It is more of a cultural discipline: this passivity is passed down from one generation of Thais to another through various proverbs, teaching them to trust their seniors' judgment and be compliant to the choices on offer.

The first one that springs to mind is a bit long - dern dtarm poo-yai, mah mai gat ("Follow an adult and no dogs will bite you"). Either the poo-yai (grown-ups) know how to avoid dogs, or they have ways of not allowing aggressive jaws to close on your their flesh, is how this is interpreted. However, this proverb, a very vivid one at that, teaches Thais to follow leaders and precedent to avoid life's risks and dangers.

Then again, whenever youngsters are arguing with an adult, they can find millions of reasons to back up what they want to do. Then the adult's likely to say, "Hey kid, I have aab namron ma gon ("taken hot baths before you"). This proverb can be decoded as, "Hey kid, shut up and listen! I know more because I've more experience."

Another interesting quote is kob dek saang baan ("tConsulting a kid about building a house.") No one would do that in real-life, because - let's face it - adults know better when it comes to serious matters like that.

All these may be just ways Thai people and especially parents use in putting their loud-mouthed kids in place. But while these are popular sayings, there's one at least to counter them with, from the famous Kalama Sutta, attributed to the Buddha's teachings, namely, that one should not automatically believe without question "what one is taught, whether by tradition, hearsay, scripture, logic, inference, appearance, agreement with established opinion, the seeming competence of a teacher, or even one's own teacher."

A pretty compelling counter-doctrine, wouldn't you say?