I paid it again today. The flower tax. Willingly. Taxes are not inevitable in Thailand and a trip to one's Thai accounting office usually starts along the lines of, "How much tax you LIKE to pay?" I'm definitely not opposed to creative tax planning - indeed, it would be financially irresponsible to my company's major Thai shareholder (my daughter Ploi, @nabithecat) if I carelessly overpaid government taxes. But the flower tax? It's a no brainer. One pays. And knowingly pays more than is required. Every. Single. Time. With pleasure.
What on earth am I even talking about? These. Flower garlands. In Thai they're called 'puong malai' พวงมาลัยดอกไม้. Sold all over Thailand, to honour the Buddha and various Deities, to show formal respect to monks, teachers and parents, or simply to make your car smell naturally wonderful while you receive a @naturalmedicine aromatherapy treatment in its purest form.
What do I normally do with them? Give them to overseas guests at the airport :) or this:
My car smells amazing. Usually in my truck I hang it over the rearview mirror, along with assorted "lucky" things which have been gifted by special people in my world to deflect the "evil eye". Do I believe they work? Only in so far as the love I feel when I am reminded of those people and connections makes me feel bulletproof and eternally connected. :)
My preference is for the ones with the long Champa flowers at the end (as opposed to the pesticide-dripping roses). Magnolia champaca, botanically. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_champaca One of my favourite Thai flowers and a tree I NEED to manifest in my Thai world!! Their fragrance is heady and sensual. Champa is used to calm, relax and create safety, and is an aphrodisiac. 
The main body of the garland is Thai jasmine, which grows everywhere here, like a weed. Tabernaemontana divaricate botanically speaking. Jasmine lifts emotions, relieves depression, is calming and also a natural aphrodisiac.
The plastic ribbon always irks me but I appreciate that for 20 baht (USD $0.61 ) expecting a Thai silk ribbon is unreasonable. One day the ribbon is part of the "sustainable equation" I hope to begin tackling here. Personally I really love the little "lucky fish" (Chinese influence, for prosperity) crafted from banana leaf. And yes, every single garland is made by hand, by an anonymous piece-worker in a tiny house somewhere - probably a woman caring for young children.
The flower "tax collectors" wander amongst the traffic lights, mostly, offering their wares:
Yes, even in scorching 100F+ heat (fairly regular occurrence here) they are covered in as much clothing as possible:
Partly to keep their skin as white as possible (brown skin being considered lower-working class and not attractive in Asia) and partly to hide their identity. Yes, the faces are almost always covered.
Why hide their identity? In a country with 450,000 registered stateless people (and the real number officially estimated and published by the BBC recently as being closer to 3.5 million), these people are not legally allowed to work. But have sought safety and shelter from ongoing armed conflict along the Thai Burmese border. They have families. They need to eat and buy medicines and clothes and pay rent. And so many of them sell flowers.
It's a hard and dangerous job. Hot beyond belief. And dirty. The scent of flowers inevitably eclipsed for them by dangerous car emissions, which they breathe in, hour after hour.
And so I buy a garland most every day. Sometimes we feel sorry for someone clearly wilting in the heat or obviously not selling well, and we hide the one we bought 5 mins ago and buy another one. Yup. My daughter and I are total softies and proud to be that way.
In a country with no pensions, supporting parent's benefits or ways for 'illegal' people to earn money, the 'flower tax' matters.
From time to time we get opinionated overseas guests or customers who lecture us about the corrupt gangs that supposedly control these people, and who refuse to buy. These people clearly need to spend a few days or weeks with no income in a country with no welfare system to speak of. Perhaps that will karmically be their next life? I hope so.
On the days when we have more than one, we hang them in the house, on my computer, in our living space. No air fresheners or toxic incense needed.
I choose to live in a world where all people have enough to live on. And when I see that's not the case, I do what I can to help. I choose to support those brave people getting out there and doing what they need to do to feed their kids.
Apart from a lot of flower garlands, what else do I gain?
- Free aromatherapy, day in, day out. Calming, uplifting and enhancing my sensual expression.
- A sense of contributing to the world every day;
- A feeling of connection with people who remember me and remember that I like the champa ones;
- A feeling as I drive that life is GOOD and that together we can effect change;
- A wonderful sense of abundance and beauty, which of itself lifts my spirits.
BlissednBlessed. If I pick you up at the airport, yup, you will inevitably be getting one of these. :)
So, pay the important taxes, people, and help change the world. One flower, one garland and one exotic aromatherapy treatment at a time.
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