Around three weeks ago, I went out of town to Ayuthaya, which is the remains of an ancient Thai city. It was for my own personal research. I've speculated a few months ago that the essence of Thai art lies within "fusion" - the complete blending & remolding of external ideas into an original product. Early last month, I started taking a course on Thai Art History, and the instructor confirms my beliefs that there is no "true Thai art". Ever since the beginning of civilization in this region, the art within the region of Thailand was always "borrowed" or heavily influenced by outside inventors. Simply put, since the beginning of time, we Thais were never inventors. We're innovators.

Thailand is not a monoculture, but a multiculture. Even what are considered to be "pure Thai" people are actually Chinese settlers that migrated into this region several hundred years ago. I'm more Chinese than "Thai" myself. The Thai people, in reality, is made up of Indians, Tais (the term used to indicate the so-called "pure Thai" people), Chinese, Karen, with some bloodlines from Mon, Khmer, and also Europeans.

Nowadays though, all Westerners are considered to be "Farangs". Unlike the often negative connotation of other cultures, such as "foreigner", which also means "outsider", a Farang is more of a guest. What I'm saying is that, the moment you step into Thailand, you are assimilated into its culture, in one way or another.

Anyway, at Ayuthaya, I saw for myself, firsthand, how this "fusion" was a part of ancient Thai culture. The architecture is very distinctively Khmer, which is, in turn, influenced by the Hindu religion. Although I'm not alone amongst historians and archaelogists, when it comes to artists, there are few people who realize or acknowledge this fact. At a museum there, on an old wooden door is a composite of Buddha and a typical Chinese warrior. Very interesting.

My other goal for visiting Ayuthaya was to gain some artistic inspiration from ancient artifacts. I wasn't disappointed. Although I cannot obtain the license to show you guys some photos, some of the relics are utterly gorgeous. Just... breathtaking. And shiny. Very shiny.

At the end of the day, I was curious about whether the trend had changed over the past couple of years or not. Coincidentally, my family was watching a video of Bird's concert. Bird is the most popular singer in Thailand for a long time already. And surprisingly, he sung some old Western pop songs during the start of the concert. Afterwards, I was baffled by an excellent fusion between a classic Chinese tune and some Thai rock-pop. Or maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. There it is again - fusion. This time, it's coming from the best of the best. Although the content is extremely different, the essence of Thai art is still exactly the same.

I intend to make the best out of that. After all, it's what we do best. XD

an enjoyable and insightful read into the ideals of a different culture.

it's pretty slick that you're so deeply passionate about gaining a higher understanding of your roots, and working to push yourself to surpass them.

it'll be fun to see what type of creations you drop as a result  :)

(it really is a downer that you're not allowed to share the photos.  i'd love to really see the images that you describe - although i can actually see them pretty dang clearly in my head.  i bet the powerful thai police - likely a fusion of robocop and dinosaurs - would cut you short before you could even click the post button, though...)

Like you said before, knowing is half the battle. I have along way to go.  :P

Well, considering that those museums are under-funded, I really don't want to give them any trouble. They won't allow us to take any photos, and the ones I have is a collection I had to buy.

Anyway, "Thai police" is a fusion of the mafia and law enforcement. Sad.

I'd like to contribute to that.

Plenty of Southeast Asia is "fusion" - with the larger civilizations, India and China having plenty of influence on the peoples surrounding them since ancient times. And just the way you said the Thai people are a multiculture, further down South there are other small groups such as the "Peranakans" mostly along the Malaysian Straits - Peranakan referring to the "Straits Chinese". You're quite right actually to think about it, that the migrations from the Chinese have indeed contributed to a significant part in Southeast Asia.

Joe - If I'm not mistaken, the Thai pronunciation for numbers are similar to the Hokkien pronunciation for numbers, am I right? I can't be sure if I got that right, but anyways, I do know that during our trips to Thailand, although we have no knowledge of the Thai language, my parents were able to converse and communicate through Hokkien (a Chinese dialect) to many shops when they were buying things and stuff like that. It's so interesting.

Well, at any rate, I think it's just beautiful to be part of such cultural diversity.

Sorry, but I unfortunately have no knowledge on that.