“Sex” in Thai view

In Thai, as it is universally, “sex” is synonymous with “libido, carnal desire, and lust”: kaam-má-rom (กามรมณ์) or khwaam khrâi (ความใคร่). It is also closely connected to “love and eroticism”: khwaam rák (ความรัก), khwaam sà-nèe-ha (ความเสน่หา) or khwaam phít-sà-wàat (ความพิศวาส).

From the Thai philosophical viewpoint, sex is a kind of temporal, worldly desire resulting from love and passion that is to be controlled and moderated. Although there is no such concept as “original sin” in Thai Buddhism, the efforts over time to stem extreme behavior have made sex into something “obscene and indecent” as expressed in these words often associated with sex: laa-mók (ลามก) or bàt-sii bàt-thà-looeng (บัดสีบัดเถลิง).

Sex has become so smutty and polluted that it has spawned many euphemisms. Thais like to call it a “south-of-the-navel affair” (rûeaang tâi sà-duue: เรื่องใต้สะดือ), an “on-the-bed affair” (rûeaang bon tiiang: เรื่องบนเตียง), an “obscene affair” (rûeaang laa-mók: เรื่องลามก), or a hush-hush “that sort of affair” (rûeaang yàang wâa: เรื่องอย่างว่า or rûeaang phan náan: เรื่องพรรค์นั้น).

(Sex Talk: In Search of Love and Romance, p. 6)

Kaewmala

Get a Thai woman’s take
on Love & Sex
in Thai Culture
Check out
Kaewmala’s blog.

Share your thoughts or
your experience on
cross-cultural romance.

Join the talk!