The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe: Being Sketches of the Domestic and Religious Rites and Ceremonies of the SiameseYoung, Ernest
Religion
The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe: Being Sketches of the Domestic and Religious Rites and Ceremonies of the Siamese
Young, Ernest
Thailand -- Religious life and customs; Thailand -- Social life and customs
Klings and Tamils from Southern India have introduced the bullock
cart as a convenient method of carrying heavy goods. These Indian
settlers are the bullock drivers, the dairymen, and the owners of
cattle. They export a large number of lean bullocks to Singapore and
the Malay Archipelago, where they are subsequently fattened to feed
the residents. The value of the animals thus exported, is about two
hundred and forty thousand Mexican dollars annually.
An electric tramway, and bicycles of the most modern construction,
tell their own tale of the way in which European influences are making
themselves felt in this land. The only real Siamese land carriage is a
curious buffalo cart. It is rarely seen in the streets of the capital,
as its peculiar form and construction fit it more particularly for
traffic through the jungle.
[Illustration: THE THREE-HEADED GATE.
_Page 22._]
The varied colours of the different costumes worn by the members of
many nationalities, form a strikingly bright and cheerful picture.
Blue being the colour of every Chinaman's work-a-day clothing, is at
once a conspicuous and pleasant tint. It is only during the three
days' festivities that usher in the Celestial New Year, that the
wearers of the pig-tail disport themselves in any other colour.
During those three days, however, they are adorned with the richest
of heliotrope, lavender, pale blue, green or yellow silks. In the
intervals between successive New Years these gorgeous garments are
safely deposited in the pawnshops. The various shades of yellow and
brown that predominate in every crowd, are not the result of the
dyer's art, but the effect of the hot bright sunlight upon the bare
bodies of those who go uncovered. The same bright light intensifies
the whiteness of the European linen jackets, now adopted by so many
Siamese in lieu of the gaily coloured scarf that formerly was the
only clothing worn on the upper part of the body. Even now most of
the women wind a long sash of some vivid hue round the breast, thus
forming a cheerful band of colour against the whiteness of the jacket.
In every crowd may be seen not only Siamese and Chinese, but Sikhs in
scarlet turbans, Burmese in yellow and pink, Malays in gaudy sarongs,
Laos in dark striped petticoats; as well as Annamese, Klings, Tamils
and Japanese, each of whom is ever dressed in the garb that centuries
of custom have defined as his own particular method of clothing his
nakedness. When to the effect of all these pleasing colours, is
added the happy merriment of thousands of faces that have never yet
experienced the fierce struggle for existence that characterises the
life of the poor of the West, a scene is realised which is nowhere to
be met with except in the sun-kissed lands of the East.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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