The Thai peasant is an early riser. Every day he goes out to the fields in the early morning, accompanied in the busy season by every available member of the family. Only the older people and sometimes the girls remain at home to attend to the house and keep the fire alight. Water buffaloes draw the plough and the harrow over the flooded fields. The young plants are put in by hand and the crop is harvested with a sickle - a backbreaking task which the peasants perform without a murmur, as they and their ancestors have done for thousands of years.

The peasants are attached to their own small holdings of land: only when it is absolutely necessary, as for the harvest, do they join in a cooperative effort. A peasant holding is essentially self-sufficient, with its own stock (mainly pigs and poultry), its garden and its orchard. Silk is woven, in sufficient quantity to meet the village's needs; there will be a number of carpenters, who are also architects and building contractors; and there will be potters and basket makers to supply local requirements. Work in the fields is punctuated by days of rest, feast-days and festivals. The Thais are passionately interested in all that surrounds them; they like to stroll about at leisure to see what is going on, and are conscious of belonging to a larger community.

A considerable part of people's income goes to the temples and the orders of monks, for it is important to acquire merit for a future life. But the Thai is also a born gambler. Many a game of nam tao is fought out on the pavement, and card games, money games, Thai boxing, animal fights and lotteries are organized anywhere and everywhere. The State itself makes a very substantial income from the national lottery. Win or lose, the results are accepted with good humor: the game itself is the main thing. And this attitude is sometimes also reflected in political life, in Thailand as elsewhere in South-East Asia.

Another national characteristic is an unshakable attachment to personal freedom; and in consequence of this individualistic attitude clubs, societies and organizations play little part in Thai life. There are no castes or strict segregation of classes, and there are no wider family or "clan" loyalties. The close family connection may extend to no more than five or six people, and a family will not maintain any regular contact with more distant relatives. Children take an active part in family life until they marry and found their own home. This pattern is reflected in the restricted range of surnames (introduced by royal decree in 1916).