Masculine Versus Feminine, Muslim Versus Buddhist

Well, here I am again with the wild and wacky fundamentalist Muslims. I have been living among the essentially feminine, light-hearted and frivolous northern Thai Buddhists for almost three years now and the differences are stark. Northern Thailand joined the rest just three hundred years ago to form Siam, prior to that it has its own long history and particular traditions. Up until just one hundred and fifty years ago all men from the north owed the king six months of every year in labor. The men went off to be soldiers or whatever the king assigned them and the women learned how to run things on their own in the men's absence. When the men came home they found everything working and took a (well-deserved) rest, this became a tradition that has made the northern Thai man, even today, famously lazy while the women are industrious.

In my town of Chiang Mai you will find most shops, restaurants and offices run by women while the men abandon their children, cheat, drink and gamble. When one walks down the street the women meet one's eye and invariably return an honest smile.

Transvestites and homosexuals are folded easily into the social mesh and the only prejudice they might be subject to, is being liked more readily. Personally, I found it very easy to get used to going to the post office, bank, or anywhere else, to be greeted by an, often, beautiful man dressed beautifully as a woman. Everywhere, everything is clean, service is eager and everyone smiles easily, like I said: a feminine culture.