|
The Arts
Suphannahong Royal Barge
- The Thai means of subsistence for generations has always benn an agricultural one. Such as an occupation, though arduous at times, left the people ample time to
confront life spiritually in contemplation of nature. Time belonged to them and they did not want to lose it in the modern hubbub of life. Now it is inevitably and gradually
otherwise. The Thai are lovers and observers of nature, amiable, generous and mirthful to everyone with whom they come into contact, for their natural and pleasant
surrounding makes them so. In Buddhism tinged with Hinduism and animistic ideas stemming from their long contact and free intermingling with the Mons
and the Cambodians, Thai art has its birth and development. It has maintained, nevertheless, its own identity of racial character, Thai art in the old days served religion which
formed the national ideal and conception of life. Modern Thai art with Western tendencies and conceptions is of a recent origin.
|