Wai Kruu 2014

Wai Kruu 2014

At Ban Rang Krathai School

Last year I wrote about Wai Kruu Day at my school in Northeastern Thailand, but didn’t have pictures of my own to publish. This year, at my new school, I made sure to remedy that.

Ban Rang Krathai School is smaller than my previous school. It has about 200 students and only goes through 9^th grade. The students assembled in the school cafeteria.  Here is a picture of the banner announcing the event (Wai Kruu Day, 5 June 2014), followed by a picture of the students waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Below, you see students with the bouquets they will present to the school principal. The two kindergartners in the front row were such troopers about holding their bouquets upright until it was their turn to go forward. In the other picture you see the school principal accepting a bouquet and patting the little boy’s cheek. The kindergarten teacher is on her knees behind the children, having accompanied them to the front of the room so they would know what to do.

In the video below, you see two students performing the deep wai, then continuing on their knees to present their bouquet to the principal before moving around the half-circle of teachers, still on their knees.

 Even after living in Thailand for a year and a half, I still feel uncomfortable watching the students walk on their knees.  They are used to it, of course – they must walk on their knees in the temple too, when presenting gifts to the monks on Buddhist holidays and other occasions.  Knee-walking can be pretty uncomfortable. I winced watching boys trying to pull the legs of their shorts down far enough to protect their skinned knees.  I winced again seeing the little girl who uses a walker on her hands and knees, being half-dragged by other students to bow to each teacher.  She was smiling though – glad to be doing what everyone else was doing.

Wai Kruu is one of many Thai traditions that cement relations within communities and reinforce a collective identity.

To conclude with a different perspective, here is a picture of Kem (which means “salt”), one of the dogs belonging to my host family. She accompanies my host sister and me to school every day, and tries to hang out near one of us. She was neither impressed nor put off by Wai Kruu.