The mixture of religious beliefs and ideas has shaped the Thai people’s attitudes and thinking in many ways. Although Buddhists view life as consisting mainly of suffering, Thais do believe in sanuk (pleasure or fun). This creates in them a carefree and easygoing spirit. While this may help in some things, it surely does nothing for orderly traffic or observance of necessary laws. Attitudes such as mai pen rai (never mind; it doesn’t matter) and tam sabai (take it easy) help little in eliminating problems like littering, nor do they encourage farsighted planning.

On the other hand, the acceptance of the effects of past karma (deeds) as being responsible for misfortunes seems to explain the Thais’ patient endurance of unpleasant circumstances. Not only does the farmer appear to be content with his hard lot in life but the average city motorist is hardly upset should anyone cut in ahead of him. Passengers on a crowded bus remain unperturbed even when it gets stuck in one of the many traffic jams in the sticky afternoon heat. This is all aptly referred to as jai yen (cool head).

Religious Life

About 95 percent of the Thai people are Buddhists, so the first thing visitors might notice is a profusion of glittering temples, or wats, with their multitiered, pointed roofs and richly ornamented gables. About 400 of the country’s 30,000 Buddhist monasteries are in Bangkok. The most famous of them is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It is the Royal Chapel, and it houses Thailand’s most revered object, a 61-centimeter-high [24 in.] Buddha image made of a green crystalline stone. It is considered so sacred that the king himself will change its three different robes at the beginning of the rainy, the cool, and the hot seasons.

At one of the busiest intersections in the city stands Bangkok’s most popular shrine, with a gilded statue of the four-headed Hindu deity Brahma. Here, Buddhism has been mixed with Hinduism from the beginning.

Saffron-robed monks making their early morning alms rounds is a familiar scene in Bangkok. Many young men still honor tradition and take up the monkhood for a short period of time​—while on leave with full pay from their employer.