This article was originally posted on WomenLearnThai.com.
Thailand’s Children of God…
I wasn’t sure what to think about the Thai phrase Children of God when I first happened across it. Thailand is Buddhist, right? Not Christian? Curious.
So, just who are Thailand’s Children of God? You might already know the concept but not the Thai.
When stopped by the police Thailand’s Children of God are said to say, “do you know who my father is?”
ลูก เทวดา
lôok tay-wá-daa
Child of God
This phrase appears in the Thai news way too often.
Note: This is not a subject I know a great deal about so if you do please feel free to enlighten me.
Update: As this was such a curious subject I looked into it further: Look Tewada ลูกเทวดา: Child of an Angel? Spoilt Brat?
Ok, it took me awhile to write the follow up post, but here it is: Look Tewada ลูกเทวดา: Child of an Angel? Spoilt Brat?
Hi John, the translation to Child of God came from a Thai friend in passing. Another Thai friend (Christian) translated it differently… there will be more on that later as we had quite a session about ลูกบังเกิดเกล้า, ลูกเทวดา, and ลูกเจ้า that I’ll be sharing here. It was an extremely interesting conversation.
I think it means something more like “Angel Child”, not children of God (which would be: ลูกของพระเจ้า). Something like calling someone a “Deva” in the West. Deva is the word for “god” from a Sanskrit background, but we use it to refer to spoiled girls. Thewada is translated “angel” by Christians. “Pra Jao” พระเจ้า is the Thai word for “God” as known and understood by Christians in Thailand.
Aor, thank you for your input! I just might be able to get my head around this phrase now. So it’s not just the rich (who we see a lot of in BKK) but spoilt kids too.
And I still haven’t had time to watch the YouTube videos – I’ve been rushing around like crazy – but I will today.
My Thai lesson is this morning so I’ll ask about all three: ลูกบังเกิดเกล้า and ลูกเทวดา and ลูกเจ้า. It’ll make for an interesting lesson (and might even make an interesting follow up post).
I haven’t heard many people use ‘look tewadah’ but ‘bpen tewadah maa jaak nai’ (= who do you think you are!). By the way, I found the same MV as Martyn posted above. When you say someone is look tewadah, it means (sarcastic) he’s untouchable, born in upper class (not good manners)or it’s because of the way parents spoil a kid so much that he is disobedient. Another common word we use is ‘look bang-gerd glaao’ (ลูกบังเกิดเกล้า)
As for children of God, what I heard is ‘look jaao (falling)'(ลูกเจ้า). Jaao is what Chinese call God. Chinese prefer to have boys, so they go to the temple to ask the Gods for boys . That’s why we call ‘look jaao’ — This one I don’t know if they still use it or not.
Martyn, apologies. I’d forgotten all about your post. I only changed my transliteration from lôok tay-wá-daa to look tewadah right before it went live (I grabbed the common spelling from google). Your explanation and what I was told are a little bit different but they still have the same concept – those who get by in life without taking full responsibility for their actions.
Catherine I can help you out with the link to the song Look Tewadah (ลูกเทวดา). I wrote a post about in on Beyond The Mango Juice and it includes a video of the song which is performed by Sanook Singmat.
http://www.thaisabai.org/2010/12/sanook-singmat-and-look-tewadah-%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%B9%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%B2/
I really don’t know much more than you do (found the songs googling). I hear it battered around but haven’t pursued it. But I’d like to know more!
As you can tell, I’m on a Google fest 🙂 ลูก เทวดา TEAM also appears to be a popular social networking identity and has nothing to do with your topic, so is just some more trivia I’ve thrown in for confusion, my own of course…OK, going now!
I only read about the first case you put forth…so, Thailand’s Children of God..it’s (allegedly) all about who Daddy knows!
ลูก เทวดา also appears to be the title of a song called ‘Angel Baby’?
Snap, Thailand’s Children of God are the privileged few. Do you remember the girl responsible for 9 deaths in BKK? Or the guy who chopped the Burmese girl in half with his fancy sports car? Or the BMW driver who barreled into bystanders?
Note: I haven’t followed those cases after the main news died down but I suspect the drivers would be what’s called the Children of God. There’s a week or two where the tragedy is in the news, forums fill with angry people, and then quietly quietly it all goes away.
Catherine, sorry I can’t enlighten you. Before coming here I saw a car sticker saying ‘Aussie Muslim’. At first I didn’t know quite what to make of it and still don’t. But, I do wonder why one would feel the need to advertise one’s religion or nationality?