Chiang Mai Reflection Day 5

Day 5 of Chiang Mai Trip

Today, we visited the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The interview format this time was a little different from our usual street interviews. This time, it was done in a panel discussion format, and perhaps due to the formal occasion, I noticed that there was a certain tension in the air. While I can’t really put a finger to it, I think it may have affected the responses we get from the director, because it seems like he’s usually answering in a rather round-about way.

Personally, I do not think that the interview went well at all. Firstly, it took way too long, almost 2 hours to complete the entire process, and the bulk of it was made up of the director buying time, trying to find right words, by keep re-using phrases like “as I mentioned”, “like I’ve said before”, “quantity [pause for 2 seconds] and quality” …etc. Secondly, for the most part, the director did not answer our questions directly, even questions that require primarily a yes/no answer, the director is still able to answer in a way that somehow seems to favour both sides (which does not make sense), or sometimes even went completely off point. This happened despite the fact that he consulted his colleagues for translation at times, which made me doubt if either of them really understood some of the questions that are posted. Thirdly, there were a lot of awkward pauses and pause-fillers in the interview, a lot more than the usual street interviews, which made editing the footage an even more daunting task.

Hence, I was utterly disappointed with the director’s inability to articulate clearly his thoughts in English. That is probably because I had the impression that most high-ranking government officials would have a certain level of command of English that puts him/her heads and shoulders above the rest of the population. Or perhaps I’m still not wrong in that sense. Either way, the director did provide useful statistics and occasionally dishes out snippets of information that would prove useful in providing insights in our research.

Reflecting on the challenges that we faced in this interview, I thought perhaps if we allowed the director to speak in a language that he is more comfortable with, like Thai, he would be probably be able to discuss much more freely and be able to share his wealth of knowledge and experiences in this field. Though, that would also come at a cost of requiring a translator, who might not be able to provide a perfect translation and would drag out the interview as well. But if that can remove the director’s pause-fillers and let him share his stories without the language barriers, I think the trade-off would be well worth it as my team would then be able to obtain better footages of the interview.

Another interesting incident that happened is our visit to Wat Chedi Luang in the afternoon. Although we went there with the intention of getting our answers from monks with regards to the influx of Chinese tourists, the monks in the monk chat turned out to be exchange students and were unable to provide us with an answer. Nevertheless, the ones we chatted with think that there is not much impact to the infrastructure or religious practices even with the influx of chinese tourists.

More importantly though, I went there with the intention of learning more about the philosophy of Buddhism and how I can apply it to understanding life. I sat there and chatted with the monk for almost an hour. It is fascinating to have a conversation with someone who seems to have everything figured out in his/her life as to commit yourself fully to that particular way of life. And none can be said so more than those who have chosen the path of monkhood or priesthood.

I wanted to know more about his take on global issues and how Buddhism interprets them, so a small group of us stayed and asked him a couple of questions which covers topics like the mechanics of afterlife, what is the end goal of Buddhism (the end of suffering apparently), I even posted him a hypothetical philosophical question, which he did give a response to. He was definitely adamant in his beliefs and he shared his opinions generously and patiently with the rest of us.

At the end of the day, what I really wanted was to understand how the monk approaches life differently from us. What is it that separates him from the rest of us, which can make him believe something whole-heartedly based on faith itself. I still have not found the answer to that, though I see no shred of doubt in his eyes when he answered my questions that are aimed to scrutinize the inner mechanics of the faith based on what he said or broad questions about the “right” way of life. Nevertheless, this was a valuable experience indeed, to be able to have an intellectually stimulating philosophical discussion with a man of faith was something that I did not expect to gain from this trip.

I’m truly thankful to USP for giving me this opportunity to explore this topic further. Thinking back, it was truly a unique opportunity to experience a monk chat session, and I’m glad I grabbed the chance to build up my thoughts in this area, an experience that is hard to replicate elsewhere in the world. All in all, I enjoyed the conversation with the monks immensely, and I believe I would yet grow to become an even more informed person as I gather the thoughts and views of people around the world.