KatieInTexas wrote
So Mitch, do you speak Thai?...
Yes, which is a segue for the description of the photo below: these are two monks from Burma that are heading for a monastery in Chiang Rai Province. The one on the left is a Shan (“Thai Yai” in Thai) from Chiang Tung in the Shan State. The Shans are the largest minority in Burma and speak a Northern Thai dialect — and therefore can learn the standard language of Thailand easily: many of them pick it up by ear watching Thai television stations that they have access to in Chiang Tung. The word “Shan” stems from a Burmese mispronunciation of “Siam”, the way the Central Asian state of “Georgia” stems from an English mispronunciation of “Gruzia”, which is the mame of that country in the Georgian language and in Slavic languages.
The monk on the right is a Burman and cannot speak Thai. He spoke to me with his limited English. I spoke with the Shan monk in Thai and he translated for the Burman monk in Burmese. It is interesting that, when I photographed them. after speaking with them for ten minutes, they turned to the camera with a serious expression, and then didn’t ask to see their picture on the LCD — in keeping with the Buddhist precept of not expressing desire that in this case would represent vanity.
M-Monochrom | Summicron-35v4 | ISO 320 | f/5.6 | 1/750 sec Chiang Mai
