Culture and Customs of the Thai Ethnic Group
Traditional Social Institutions: The "ban muong" institution, a pre-state organizational form, marks the high level of social development among the Thai people.
Religion and Beliefs: The Thai people worship their ancestors, agricultural gods, and river and mountain gods. Their worship is associated with various annual festivals such as the field festival, rain praying festival, rice soul procession festival, harvest festival, and new rice festival. Marriage and funeral customs are tightly organized according to traditional rituals. Ancestor worship among the Black Thai occurs in the 7th and 8th lunar months, while the White Thai celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Housing: The Thai live in stilt houses, with varying designs. The "khau cut" symbol is uniquely depicted in the turtle shell-shaped roofs of the Black Thai stilt houses. Meanwhile, the houses of the White Thai are usually built on a rectangular ground plan with wooden railings in front or around the house. A distinctive architectural feature of the Thai stilt houses is the stairs, which preserve many spiritual and cultural values, religious significance, and gender-related taboos.
Clothing: Different Thai groups such as the Black Thai and White Thai share common elements in their daily attire but also maintain distinctive characteristics. White Thai women wear short, bright-colored blouses with silver buttons shaped like butterflies or bees and plain black skirts. They wear headscarves made of indigo fabric about two meters long. Black Thai women wear short, dark-colored blouses (indigo or black). Unmarried girls do not tie their hair in a bun but wear intricately embroidered scarves called "khan pieu." Married women tie their hair into a top knot called "tang cau," lowering it to the nape when their husband dies. Thai women wear various jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings, hairpins, and silver chains.
Cuisine: Sticky rice, bamboo-tube rice, can wine, and grilled dishes are often considered distinctive features of Thai cuisine.
Arts: The Thai have unique "xoe" dances, poetry singing, and rich love exchanges. Traditional musical instruments include various types of bamboo flutes and pipes.
Folk Games: Popular Thai games include throwing balls, tug-of-war, horse racing, boat rowing, crossbow shooting, xoe dancing, and playing tops and mak leo fruits.
Education: According to the 2019 survey of 53 ethnic minorities, the literacy rate of people aged 15 and above is 81.6%; the overall school attendance rate for primary school children is 100.8%; for lower secondary school, it is 94.6%; and for upper secondary school, it is 56.5%. The literacy rate of people aged 15 and above in their ethnic language is 4.3%. The percentage of Thai children aged over 5 attending school is 99.4%.