I’m sure you’ve heard of the famous proverb of the Three Wise Monkeys – “Hear no evil, Speak no evil, See no evil.”

With a little choreography, I recreated the Three Wise Monkeys famous pose in Ban Na Tong, a small rural village located about 30 KM from Phrae in Northern Thailand. I chose three kids from the local school there, had them place some Bua Tong - Wild Mexican Sunflower – on top of their heads and placed the children in front of a monkey shrine.

I’m sure they had no clue, what the significance of this pose – but then again, I could be wrong. Westerners probably are not aware of the origins of “The Three Monkeys” proverb as well – it is based on a 17th century carving over a door of a famous shrine in Japan, but apparently the philosophy has deeper roots – from a Buddhist legend in 8th century China.

All I know, it makes for a classical – somewhat hilarious picture.

Tags: Northern Thailand, Three Monkeys Chinese Proverb

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 10:39 am and is filed under Humor, Thailand, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.