Phuket Culture | The Phuket News

Sacred Geometry: Does mathematics hold a case for intelligent design?

Sunday 14 April 2019 10:00 AM

A rather factual and equally amusing retort by atheists on the argument of their lack of faith goes, “There have been 10,000 gods throughout history. You reject 9,999 of them. I just go one further.”

The forgotten women living in the time of Buddha part 1: Queen Samavati

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 7 April 2019 03:00 PM

Margaret Thatcher once said, “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” Well, at least in regards to the rise of ancient Buddhism, truer words could not have been spoken.

15th World Wai Kru Muay Thai Ceremony attracts record numbers to Ayutthaya

Phuket Life / Culture

Friday 22 March 2019 12:04 PM

AYUTTHAYA: The 15th World Wai Kru Muay Thai Ceremony attracted a record number of participants to Ayutthaya with over 1,500 Muay Thai practitioners from 70 countries attending the event from March 16 to 17.

Phuket History: The 1675 Battle of Patong

Phuket Life / Culture

Monday 18 March 2019 03:00 PM

The Englishman Thomas Bowrey was on Phuket as the island’s trouble with the Dutch escalated. He tells us that the main base for the Dutch patrol ships was “Banquala” Bay (Patong), where they were based to intercept boats coming east from India.

All About Buddhism: An exclusive interview with Phra Maha Tongmee Supanla part 2

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 10 March 2019 03:00 PM

In part one of the interview with Phra Maha Tongmee Supanla, senior monk at The Flat Temple in Bangkok, we discovered that a Thai monk’s day usually starts at 5am. A normal day features morning alms collecting, morning chanting, breakfast, Buddhist studies, lunch, daily chores and evening chanting.

All About Buddhism: An exclusive interview with Phra Maha Tongmee Supanla part 1

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 3 March 2019 03:00 PM

Each year, Thailand is discovered by tens of millions of tourists. Love arrives. Marriages happen. Families start. Babies are born. Children smile. Hearts are changed... and spirituality is sought.

20 years of Phuket Old Town Festival

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 17 February 2019 12:00 PM

72nd Anniversary Queen Sirikit Park on Thalang Rd was awash with reds and golds – even more so than usual – on Feb 10 as Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana welcomed locals and tourists alike at the opening of this year’s Phuket Old Town festival.

Well I’ll be damned! A short history of meaningful coincidence

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 10 February 2019 03:00 PM

In the spring of 2018 I was feeling rather sorry for myself. I was in London, living out of a suitcase and working for a cause with which I had become particularly disillusioned. Cynical of the wily workings of the West and armed with a whimsical flight of fancy to head east I sent my resume to The Phuket News. Whilst polite about my unsolicited advances, there was of course no position available for this random chancer.

Kung Hei Fat Choy: Phuket’s expats on one of the world’s most celebrated festivals

Phuket Life / Culture

Monday 4 February 2019 11:00 AM

Expats from China and Hong Kong discuss their take on life in Thailand, what Chinese New Year – or Spring Festival – means to them and how they’ll be seeing in the year of the pig.

All About Buddhism: Eastern teachers and Western students mix like oil and water

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 27 January 2019 03:00 PM

This year, it is expected that over 30 million tourists will come to Thailand. If you’re a tourist reading this, then chances are you’re thinking at least a little bit about extending your stay. If you’re like some of us expats in Thailand, you might even be thinking about making that stay permanent.

The Kingdom of Funan: The First Great Southeast Asian Empire

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 13 January 2019 10:00 AM

The smaller kingdoms developing in the central peninsula came to be dominated by the Kingdom of Funan from the first to the seventh centuries AD. Funan, probably the first great Southeast Asian empire, apparently started out as a simple pirate base at Óc Eo, strategically situated on the southwest coast of Vietnam today between the Mekong delta and the main east-west maritime trade routes.

All in a dream: Thailand’s lottery obsession can be a nightmare

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 6 January 2019 01:00 PM

He appeared out of nowhere. My personal assistant. He was dressed in his work uniform. I don’t know where he came from but he ran towards me. As he neared he smiled and crouched down right before me. He must have been about a metre away from my face. He didn’t say a word, just kept beaming at me.

All About Buddhism: The Season for Miracles

Phuket Life / Culture

Saturday 29 December 2018 12:31 PM

Due to our unfamiliarity with them, foreign traditions often strike our hearts much more deeply than do the traditions that we like to claim for our own. Sometimes, we even find that new traditions can lead to miracles in our life because a foreign tradition gives us a new and novel way of seeing the world.

Year-long activities planned for 2019 to celebrate ‘Khon’

Phuket Life / Culture

Friday 21 December 2018 10:00 AM

Thailand’s Ministry of Culture’s Department of Cultural Promotion has declared a year of activities in 2019 to celebrate ‘Khon’, Thailand’s masked dance drama, which has been inscribed on Unesco’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Guru Prep Academy - Studying for ‘The Thamasooksa Test’

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 9 December 2018 02:00 PM

In America, the Church and State have been staunchly separated for centuries. The United States was never a religious Kingdom and, these days, most traces of its Christian roots are being purged out of the government classroom entirely.

The Massacre of the Cholas - Phuket under Indian Governorship 1676-1679

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 2 December 2018 02:00 PM

In 1676, when he was warned that the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was planning to invade Phuket to make it a colony, King Narai had ordered the removal of Okya Phet, the anti-Dutch governor. Okya Phet petitioned heavily in Ligor and Ayutthaya to try to retain his lucrative governorship.

An eternal Halloween - A Buddhist view on evil

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 28 October 2018 11:00 AM

In a child’s world, the worst acts of man go largely unseen. But, all adults know that evil is a sad fact of life. We also know that it exists in all times and in all places.

Sinbad the Sailor - Was Phuket the mariner’s old stomping ground?

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 21 October 2018 02:00 PM

Persian and Arab mariners returned home to their barren and dry homelands with fantastic stories of the exotic jungle lands they had seen on the other side of the Indian Ocean, and they soon became the setting for fabulous sailors’ legends such as the tales of Sinbad the Sailor in The Thousand and One Nights.

Peranakannitat Museum in Phuket Town

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 14 October 2018 01:00 PM

Right in the heart of old Phuket Town you can find the Peranakannitat Museum (also called the Baba Museum), which was officially opened in May 2017 by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

Everything Possible: What Buddhism does and does not say about gay marriage

Phuket Life / Culture

Sunday 16 September 2018 11:00 AM

Okay readers, pick the best of one of these statements: ‘I’m better than you’, ‘I’m worse than you’, ‘I’m the same as you’.

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