Thoughts on visit to Garden of Hope, Chiang Mai, Thailand

The first thing that struck me about Garden of Hope was that there were interns and ministry partners hard at work to help enable young ladies who work in prostitution to find a way out. Thailand and Thai thoughts are complex for most Westerners.

Thai culture is steeped in Buddhist tradition and as such there are built in historical and cultural concepts regarding right and wrong, work and life. When one treads here it is vitally important to try to understand the mindset, the thoughts and the reasoning of the Thai people.

As it turns out the Buddhist background teaches about things such as Karma, both good and bad and this Karma has great bearing on a person’s next life. If you are bad then you are reincarnated in such a way that you pay for it. Your status, social standing and you lot is life is thought to be largely predetermined  and as such you can only labor in a way that you are destined.

This is so foreign to the Western mindset that says, “Be all that you can be!”, “You can go anywhere and be anyone you want to be.”

When I spoke with a local Thai restaurant owner about the concept of prostitution and how it was perceived in Thai society in general I learned the following. Prostitution is not right or wrong and the person working is prostitution is not to be looked down upon, after all in the next life it might be your own lot in life. In other words the thought is that the person engaged in prostitution is paying back karma price for what the previous person did in their life. Sort of a fatalistic view endeavoring to entrap the people in the mid set that as they are is what they can be and no more. The lady at the restaurant went on to say that in fact prostitution was just a lesser way to live, not good, not bad, just lesser. She voiced that the Buddhist mindset says that one husband and one wife is the preferred way but not possible for all people. In other words, someone has to pay the price for the past evil and resulting bad karma.

When I spoke with a high school senior about teens and how they are taught or come to understand sexuality he told me that many parents encourage their children to engage in sexual activity because it is neither right nor wrong. Before you get to offended let me say that there are differing views on that point with some saying that the Thai culture depends on the community to help guide youth in this area and that the culture is conservative. I guess I was trying to explore the concept of sin to the Thai culture and how it is perceived or if it is perceived at all. How can a person repent and turn from sin if sin does not exist in their mind, soul or heart?  What is the thing that would keep a person from being a prostitute or engaging freely in elicit relationships if there is no concept of sin and it’s consecuences.

Actually in Thailand although Christianity is present and has been for several hundred years or more there are remarkably very few Christians in Thailand.  I spoke with the wife of a Christian missionary who told me she had been in Chiang Mai for 4 years and she is engaged in working with the girls who ply the prostitution trade. She visits the bars and works to build relationships with the young women and then to lead them to the Garden of Hope program where they learn life skills and trades which can enable them to forsake the prostitution trade. The success of this program in achieving the actual result of having the young ladies forsake prostitution is not yet achieved. Very few have chosen to leave the prostitution trade. When you speak to the ladies you come to see how beautiful and vulnerable they actually are. Some come from villages and towns where they have no work. Some have children and husbands back home and this trade is not seen as wrong so they engage in it and make a good living for their family who they are closely knit to.

This particular day one of our group who is a chef was teaching the ladies how to make U.S. style lasagna. Surprisingly one of the ladies brought a foreign friend to the gathering. All of us spent the day together and ate lunch together. We ate what was prepared together, Christian, non Christian, Buddhist, prostitute and sinners. We shared a meal and partook of each others life. Our group sang and spoke to them from the heart about Jesus  Christ and how he came to redeem people from their sins.

When I spoke with the missionary wife who worked with the prostitutes she explained that in the Thail culture the position of prostitute is a servant type position and that it is often viewed as actually being a move up in life. That’s right, it is viewed as worse to not have any means to provide for your family. No job is worst than a job as a prostitute. I told you it was a different mindset. One of our translators told me that one of her classmates engaged in prostitution because it was good money and easy work helping her to pay for her education.  Wait maybe the mindset is not so different in some cases.

A story is told of a man who owned a business and everyday in front of his business homeless people would come sleep on the sidewalk. In the morning he would ask them to leave everyday. This business owner was very wealthy but never helped even one of the homeless folks sleeping in front of his business. You might be thinking that he was a bad guy and perhaps even evil. One day a Christian came by early and found all of the people sleeping on the sidewalk and he started to help them by offering them food, clothes and opportunities to learn and support themselves. It wasn’t long before the business owner contacted the Christian directly and told him to stop helping the homeless people. When the Christian asked why this is what was explained to him by the Buddhist business owner. These people have to pay for what someone else did in their past life. They are reincarnated now to pay the price for past accumulated bad karma. He went on to say, “If you help them now it will only be worst for them in the next life, please, please just leave them alone. Let them pay the price for the bad karma that is accumulated or they will never have opportunity to live a blessed life.

This mindset does not represent all of Thailand and I want for you to know this but it permeates all parts of Thailand. Some of you are perhaps Thai nationals and you may know your culture differently. What I am writing is after a two week visit and taking classes on Buddhism and Islam in Thailand. If I am wrong please contact me with enlightment. I want to know.