Bangkok, Thailand
Welcome back to our global gifting year-end countdown! Today’s gifting suggestions come to us from Thailand via Mark Wolf, BBA ’78 and current Architecture Ph.D. candidate Pamanee Chaiwat. Following their personal gift picks, Mark and Pamanee have also shared some information about popular gifting holidays in Thailand.
At the UO, Mark Wolf majored in Real Estate. After graduating, he lived in Bellevue, Washington, where he owned real estate-related companies and worked for over two decades on a wide variety of commercial real estate developments. Mark traveled to Asia for several years before moving to Thailand permanently in 2014. Since his international move, he has become owner of The Royal Asia Company, a residential and commercial real estate firm, and co-founded the Bangkok Venture Club, Thailand’s largest angel investment group.
Pamanee Chiawat is a licensed architect in Thailand. She began her Ph.D. studies at the UO in 2018 after completing her undergraduate (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) and graduate (University of Washington) architecture degrees. Her research focus areas are architecture and race, places, and social equity. In her dissertation, which focuses on refugee resettlement and inclusivity in US refugee-receiving cities, Chaiwat examines the roles of architecture in representing identity and facilitating integration. She also explores connections between physical spaces and the virtual space of social media activities. Particularly, she looks at how virtual space impacts and benefits disadvantaged groups and marginalized communities.
Mark Wolf, BBA ’78
Co-Founder of Bangkok Venture Club, Owner of The Royal Asia Company, and Duck parent
Top gifts: Trends and traditions
Food or a shared meal
In Thailand, people don’t traditionally exchange material gifts as in the West. People prefer to enjoy meals with family and friends. If a gift is given, it is usually food. Dishes for enjoying together on Thai New Year (Songkran) are called “lucky foods”: larb gai, a minced chicken salad (recipe here), and toong tong, fried dumplings (recipe here).
Donations to temples
Donations at local Buddhist temples (or “wat”) are often made in the name of a family member or friend as a gift.
Handicraft items
Other popular items for when people do gift are handicrafts. Wood, bamboo, and rattan crafts are made here, as are ceramics, silverwork, cutlery, lacquerware, and handloom silks. Fairtrade organization Thaicraft has more information on handicraft traditions and artisan profiles you can read here.
Top gifts: Personal picks
Maximum effort to learn and dialogue
For the youth of today, the best gift I can wish for you is the ability to learn to “critically think” and reason. Don’t accept
what social media wants you to believe. Online media can be your friend or foe. Exposure to misinformation, violation of one’s privacy, and political polarization is rampant on the internet.
Education is your best protection. Question people and print. Engage in a meaningful way. Seek the truth, not headlines. And above all, don’t let your phone, tablet, computer, etc. consume your
life!
Ducks national championship win
This is another big gift for us all: A national football championship in the next few years for the Ducks!
Good health
Those of us who are healty don’t realize how much we take our good heath for granted. The pandemic has made many of us more aware of just how precious good health is. My ultimate gift would be good health for my family and friends – and all of the Ducks out there, too!
A lesson in tolerance: mai pen rai
A Thai understanding of tolerance, perhaps best expressed in the phrase mai pen rai, would be a great gift for those in the U.S. who seem to be ever more committed to misunderstanding each other. Mai pen rai is an expression that is used, often in the face of difficulty, to put things in perspective and maintain a psotive attitude towards self and others. You can learn more about the meanings and uses of mai pen rai in this article.
Pamanee Chiawat
UO Architecture Ph.D. candidate who is passionate about architecture as a means to support refugee community success
My top gifts: Trends and traditions
Eco-friendly alternatives
Eco-friendly options like reusable shopping bags and paper straws have been becoming more popular recently. There have been several recent initiatives to improve the environment and people are beginning to change their habits. Thailand has announced that it will ban plastic straws and cups (as well as styrofoam containers) by 2022. It was also recently announced that Bangkok is planning a 1.4 km stretch of eco-friendly fireworks on the coming new year as a symbol of hope to the world.
Money
Money is a popular gift, especially at weddings. Donations to temples in a person’s name for his or her birthday is also common.
Orange cake
Sweet treats are a popular gift, especially orange cake! December is orange season. Also, for Thais of Chinese descent, the golden color of orange cake symbolizes wealth, luck, and blessings. You can try making Thai orange cake using the recipe here.
Not alcohol!
There is a campaign to reduce alcohol consumption called, “gifting liquor is cursing (the person to whom you are gifting).” The campaign also intends to discourage people from driving after parties or while drunk. You can view the hilrious video ad for this campaign here.
My top gifts: Personal picks
Books on refugees in the U.S.
I have a particular interest in supporting refugee communities around the world. My academic work revolves around making refugee communities more successful via architectural design. Books about refugees in the U.S. help me develop both personal and academic perspective.
Protective masks
Masks are a necessity these days. I could use a few more masks so I can always have clean masks on hand.
Ear pods
Ear pods make life both easier and more fun! It is really convenient to have hands-free phone calls and online meetings (for those of us who need privacy). They are also great for listening to podcasts, books on tape, and workouts so I can have productive time away from my screens!
Houseplants
Houseplants bring peace and beauty to a home. There can never be too many of them! They are also a nice sentimental gift that can be remembered through the days and seasons.
Gifting in Thailand
New year is the time for gifting. People visit relatives and friends then exchange gifts and a blessing for a new start. Thailand has two new years. One on Jan 1st and another on April 13th, Thai New Year (Songkran).
Songkran is more for family gathering and there are parades and the world’s largest water festival! It is also a time for cleaning and getting rid of old things as well as releasing captive birds and fish.
January 1st is usually more of a gifting holiday. Family, relatives, neighbors, cohorts, and colleagues gift one another to bring luck and blessings for the year to come, help those in need, and show express affection and respect.
Both of the new years are knows as times to practice charity. As a predominately Buddhist country, donations are made all year for merit. A few more occasions especially important for charity/donation are birthday celebrations and Uposatha, the Buddhist observance days corresponding with the new, bright half, full, and dark half moon phases.
Loy Krathong, Father’s Day (King’s Birthday), Mother’s Day (Queen’s Birthday), and Children’s Day are other important holidays. These are usually holidays for ceremony and reverence rather than gifting. For example, on Father’s Day, fathers are
presented with a small flower wreath by their children and thanked for their love and kindness.
Father’s Day was just celebrated on 5 December. It is the Birthday of King Rama IX. Because King Rama IX was born on a Monday and the Buddhist color for Monday is Yellow, yellow is worn on Father’s Day to honor the King. Rama X is the current King after Rama IX’s passing a few years ago.
Western ex-pats celebrate their native country holidays.
