Etiquette in Siam

The Royal Slippers, Sword of Victory, the Great Crown of Victory, the Royal Staff, Royal Fan and Flywhisk – The Royal Regalia of Siam 

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On Hands and Knees Before the King Was Long the Custom There

Perhaps the most revolutionary reform carried out by the late King of Siam was the abolition of the arbitrary rule of etiquette which forbade an inferior in rank to raise his head above that of a superior, or even level with it. The inferior must not even pass over a bridge while a superior was underneath it, nor must he enter a room in an upper story while a superior was occupying a room beneath it. Servants approached their master on hands and knees. This custom is by no means obsolete today, in spite of the Royal edict, for many of the powerful Nobles who live far away from the Court still enforce it. 

In 1874 the King held a large Court, at which no one present presumed to appear otherwise than on hands and knees. It was at this audience that the edict forbidding the custom was read to the prostrate multitude. They there and then rose and stood like men in the presence of their Sovereign for the first time on record. Since then there has been no prostration at the Royal audiences. But if a superior stops to speak to an inferior in the street, the latter will still bend or lower his head in some way, as a mark of respect. - London Saturday Review, 1911

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia