Someone asked me today whether I kiss the hands of the Governor of Nonthaburi, I replied by saying, no I did not kiss his hand. I added, in Thailand you do the " Wai" instead. The "Wai" is done by putting both hand close together, lift it up to your face together with a small bow. Why should I kiss the hands of the Governor when the "Wai" is the most famous symbol in Thai culture. I believe this rather dubious curiousity came from the same person who criticised me for kissing Tun Mahathir's hand.
I can never understand these people, they have high regards in the English culture, they totally disregard the beauty of our culture in particular the culture of the Malays, the Indonesians and the Thais. They are also the same people who believe the culture practice of a wife who kiss the husband hands in the morning before the departing to their office are a complete waste of time. To them the kissing of hands between husband and wife as one sees in the morning serve no purpose whatsoever, it does not contribute to productivity.
To me, as I have mentioned before, they are just Buta Adat. Every now and then when they see someone "Beradat", their blood boils, their hearts in pain, their soul no longer in peace. I can assure you in english culture they have idioms similar to us in this part of the world such as "Dimana Bumi Di Pijak Di Situ Langit Di Junjung."
4 comments:
dimana bumi dipijak, disitu langit dijunjung.
The practise of a wife (Malay, mind you, not Muslim) kissing her husband's hand is akin to the Hindu culture of a wife kissing her husband's feet. It should be done away with. In Hinduism, the husband is regarded as a "deva" to the wife, what a load of rubbish (indeed)!That particular Hindu culture was probably conjured up by one pathetic Hindu man(priest) who wanted to enforce submission on women. A marriage is about mutual respect. What does the Malay husband do to show his wife he respects her? Not all "adat" are good. Keep the good ones, throw out the bad lot,indeed, I say.
It is good for a civilised nation to have "Adat". But it is better for nations to use their little grey cells when practising "Adat". Wasn't it Hang Tuah who in following "adat" acted "membuta tuli" by fighting with Hang Jebat "tanpa usul periksa"? The Malay adat he followed was called "do not question your Sultan no matter how incredulous his command may seem". Are we to follow suit and follow the government of the day without question?
The Hindu faith in India has no similarity a part to the one in the Malay Archipelago. The last Malay Hindu post in Bali are fine example. It was only 20 years ago we decided to forego the Adat of Mandi, Puja, so on and so forth.
The kissing of hands in the Malay Adat extended between the young and the old, the children and the parent the murid and the guru.
Kissing of hands is or culture, nothing to do with the Hindu, as much as istiadat bersanding. All races in this world bersanding. Nothing got to do with Hinduism, alright.
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