The Different Contexts of Gay in Urban and Lanna Societies and the Representation of Gay in the Paintings in Phumintara Temple

Abstract

The paper studies the Thai social perception and attitude towards gay as represented in visual arts. It begins with the overview of gay in the Thai society so as to understand its emergence of and related phenomena. Since Thailand is a melting pot of class, cultural and ethnic differences, this study, therefore, concentrates on the comparison between urban homosexuals and those in marginalized communities such as Lanna.  The two social spheres not only have clearly different accepted sexual norms and biases, but also distinctions in terms of image, situation and ways in which gay negotiate for space to represent their experiences and express themselves though activities. This study takes queer theories as its theoretical concept to analyze different socio-cultural contexts and expectations that differently shape urban gay and their Lanna counterparts. Of particular concerns are also different social attitude towards the two groups of gay. The study examines visual arts, including related documents, books articles, which deal with gay in Lanna culture. It chooses the folk paintings in the Phumintara Temple in Nan Province as a case study that perfectly serves as evidence of the existence of gay and artistic expression of social attitude toward them.