They are commonly carried by university students/teachers. If you can identify them both, you are hardcore Thai.
There are two main objects in this photo
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
They are commonly carried by university students/teachers. If you can identify them both, you are hardcore Thai.
I tried to leave a comment yesterday, but I kept getting some kind of error message. Anyway, my initial guess about the blue box is that it was a portable charger, especially given the wind-up cord and the label that says “Wireless fast [charger].”
The second object, with the face, looked like either a Buddhist demon or a wrathful Buddha (seen on tenghwa/thangka in temples). But I cheated and used AI to discover it’s a character from the Hindu Ramayana, and more important, an “herbal inhaler” of some sort. I hope someone’s nasal passages are feeling better. Thailand is a Theravada Buddhist country… was the Ramayana “Buddhified”? I’m guessing that Indian culture has had a huge influence on Thailand, which you can see, for example, in the “Maha” of “Maha Sarakham.”
Hmm, my site is slow loading today as well. Maybe my web hosting ninjas are off for the holidays.
The Ramayana was adapted for Buddhist literature and teachings (and of course the Thai version, called the Ramakien). This green dude is supposed to be Thotsakan, I think, who had several heads all stacked up on top of each other in the mural paintings and statues I saw at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok. So this is a simplified and kawaii version that does indeed look mind of monkish.
Thai students depend on the inhalers to stay awake in class, and many people are just addicted to them. They are treated as a cure-all, to the extent that bystanders often wave them under the noses of accident victims on the street.