Tales of Teaching in Thailand

This past Friday, Thailand had a celebration for a famous Thai poet, Sunthorn Phu. Wikipedia says- Phra Sunthorn Vohara, known as Sunthorn Phu, (26 June 1786 – 1855) is Thailand’s best-known^{[citation needed]} royal poet. He authored during the Rattanakosin era.

Phu's career as a royal poet began in the reign of King Rama II, and when the king died, he resigned from the role and became a monk. Twenty years later, in the reign of King Rama III, he returned to court as a royal scribe, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Phu was especially renowned for composing verse, and his conventions in epic poetry are popular in Thailand to the present day. His canonical works include Nirat Phukaothong (a collection of poems depicting his journey to the Golden Mountain), Nirat Suphan (depicting his journey to Suphanburi Province), and the Phra Aphai Mani saga.

To celebrate, our school hosted a variety of activities including dancing, a reenactment of his most famous poem, a concert in which student bands performed, and a Lady boy competition! It was a rather random conglomeration of events, but heck I didn't question it. I taught my first class, and then the rest of the day was spent participating in the activities. The other foreign teachers and I watched the Lady Boy competition, which I think overlapped with the poem reenactment, so I missed that. The Lady boy competition was pretty ridiculous. These galls were dressed to the nines, including nine inch platform stripper heels. The shoes were so tall, many of the contestants were taped into their shoes. While doing the runway walk, a lot of them nearly fell over. It was pretty funny. It was also bizarre because the contestants were high school age, and a few were my 16 year old students. Can you imagine an event like this happening at an American high school?? Yea right. We may have just legalized gay marriage, but I think we are still a long way from this spectacular spectacle.

Here are some photos-