People & Culture - Thailand's Islands and Beaches - page 791

instrument played horizontally on the ground. Woodwind instruments include the klòo·i,
a simple wooden flute, and the Ъèe, a recorderlike instrument with a reed mouthpiece.
You'll hear the Ъèe being played if you go to a Thai boxing match. Perhaps the most fa-
miliar Thai instrument is the kĭm or hammer dulcimer, responsible for the plinking,
plunking music you'll hear in Thai restaurants across the world.
The contemporary Thai music scene is strong and diverse. The most popular genre is
undoubtedly lôok tûng (a style analogous to country and western in the USA), which
tends to appeal most to working-class Thais. The 1970s ushered in a new style dubbed
pleng pêu·a chee·wít (literally 'music for life'), inspired by the politically conscious folk
rock of the USA and Europe. The three biggest modern Thai music icons are rock staple
Carabao, pop star Thongchai 'Bird' MacIntyre, and lôok tûng queen Pumpuang
Duangchan, who died tragically in 1995.
Today there are hundreds of youth-oriented Thai bands, from chirpy boy and girl bands
to metal rockers, making music that is easy to sing along with and maddeningly hard to
get out of your head.
In the 1990s an alternative pop scene - known as pleng tâi din (underground music) -
grew in Bangkok. Modern Dog, a Britpop-inspired band, is generally credited with bring-
ing independent Thai music into the mainstream, and their success paved the way for
more mainstream alternative acts such as Apartmentkunpha, Futon, Chou Chou and Cal-
ories Blah Blah. Thai headbangers designed to fill stadiums include perennial favourite
Loso, as well as Big Ass, Potato and Bodyslam.
There is no universally accepted method of transliterating from Thai to English, so some words and
place names are spelled a variety of ways.
Architecture
Most traditional Thai architecture is religious in nature. Thai temples, like Thai
Buddhism, gladly mix and match different foreign influences, from the corn-shaped stupa
inherited from the Khmer empire to the bell-shaped stupa of Sri Lanka. Despite the for-
eign flourishes, the roof lines of all Thai temples mimic the shape of the naga (mythical
serpent) that protected the Buddha during meditation and is viewed as a symbol of life.
Green and gold tiles represent scales while the soaring eaves are the head of the creature.
Bangkok's finest teak building is Vimanmek Teak Mansion, said to be the largest
golden-teak building in the world. Teak houses are typically raised on stilts to minimise