Multiculturalism in Thailand

Thailand as it is one of the most exotic places in the world because of it’s beaches, the climate and different cultures. As it has religions, cultures and languages very different to those we have in Spain it becomes a very striking place to visit for us.

It is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. This country is bordered in the north by Burma and Laos, in the east by Laos and Cambodia, in the south by by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and in the west by  the Andaman Sea. Thailand’s capital is Bangkok which is also the country’s political, cultural, commercial and industrial center. It’s most important religion is the Buddhism. As Thailand is a big country, we can find a huge diversity in languages, religions and cultures; what we call multiculturalism.

Multiculturalism is a body of thought in political philosophy about the proper way to respond to cultural and religious diversity. Mere toleration of group differences is said to fall short of treating members of minority groups as equal citizens; recognition and positive accommodation of group differences are required through “group-differentiated rights,” a term coined by Will Kymlicka (1995).

We can know more about the multiculturalism  in Asia thanks to different books which explain us very important things we must know about it. And I think it is relevant to know something about the culture that predominates or the multiculturality you can find in any place you travel to. For that we can read some books as ” Multiculturalism in Asia” (2005):

This book explores the different ways that issues of ethnocultural diversity are conceptualised and debated in South and East Asia. It looks at the legacies of precolonial and colonial traditions for managing diversity, their reinterpretation under postcolonial independence and globalisation, and their relationship to Western liberal models of multiculturalism and emerging international norms of human and minority rights. It shows that political actors draw on a range of intellectual resources and traditions when thinking through these questions. Appeals to international human rights instruments and Western policies of multiculturalism are interspersed with appeals to local traditions, national mythologies, regional practices, and religious doctrines. An attempt to understand these debates or contribute to them requires an understanding of the complex interaction between the different ways of conceptualising diversity and citizenship.

References:

• Thailand. (2011, November 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:07, November 30, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thailand&oldid=463247307‘
• Thailand needs a new multiculturalism policy’, updated on: Friday, July 01, 2005 http://www.siiaonline.org/?q=programmes/insights/thailand-needs-a-new-multiculturalism-policy.
• Multiculturalism. (2011, November 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:16, November 30, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Multiculturalism&oldid=462692758