How to Perform the Thai Wai - Thailand's Universal Greeting

The Wai

Chances are that anybody who has ever travelled to Thailand will have met with ‘the wai’ long before touching down at the airport, and certainly numerous times before leaving it. The wai is Thailand’s universal greeting, a sign of mutual recognition and a means by which to show respect.

Every tourist during their time spent in Thailand will no doubt have attempted to respond to the graceful and well practised wai’s of the local Thais with an enthusiastic yet awkward wai of their own.

Performing the Wai:

The wai is performed by raising both hands, palms joined, to a position lightly touching the body somewhere between the chest and the forehead.

As with much of Thai culture however there is more to this simple expression then at first meets the eye. Here are a few things every tourist should know in order to fully understand the correct use of the wai.

(1) The higher the hands are raised the greater the respect being shown to the recipient.

(2) The person who is junior in age or social standing should be the first to perform the wai. (It is bad luck for a senior person to perform the wai first, and is said to reduce the junior person’s life by seven years).

(3) In order to show even greater respect whilst performing the wai the person may stoop or bow their head.

(4) The performing of the wai should be done as gracefully as possible with slow fluid movement, with the upper arms and elbows held close to the body, with the hands joined and bent slightly inwards

(5) During religious ceremonies the wai will be performed with a green lotus bud and joss sticks clasped within the hands, these will later be offered as tribute to a monk or to the Buddha

(6) Buddhist monks in Thailand will never return a wai from a layman regardless of advanced years or rank (not even from the King.)