Samui Culture & History
 Perhaps you have friends or family who have visited Thailand and told you of
their experiences. If Samui will be your introduction to the Kingdom, bear in mind there
are some similarities and some differences between islanders and city folk. To compare
residents of Bangkok with those of Samui would be like comparing big city dwellers from
any country in the world with those in the villages.
Samui is home
to about 40,000 full-time inhabitants. Like the surrounding islands, it was first settled
by ethnic Malay fishermen from the mainland, as well as immigrants from Southern China; at
a time when the surrounding waters teemed with fish. Maps dating as far back as 1687 have
the island identified as "Pulo Cornam," from the Malay. Little written history
of the island exists, and most of the knowledge we have has been passed down through
generations.
 There are two theories as to how the island was named. The first suggests that
the name of a commonly-found tree called "mui" was lengthened at some point. The
second, and probably more likely notion, is that "Saboey" which is a Chinese
word for safe haven (certainly an apt description of the island's largely protected
waters) was adopted by Chinese fishermen, and later become the name we use today.
Vestiges of the once thriving fishing communities can still be seen in villages such as
Nathon and Maenam. Lucrative coconut and rubber farming industries also developed, and
harvesting of these crops still takes place in the hills of the island's interior. Samui
is home to more varieties of coconut palms than any other place on earth.
 Until not much more than a decade ago, folks on Samui had scarcely seen
foreigners. With the influx of tourists an industry sprung up, and thousands of jobs were
created. Foreign currency flowed in, benefiting many.
These former
fishermen and farmers now suddenly competed to fulfill Western tastes and demands. But the
well-known patient and adaptable nature of Thais, and the new opportunities that tourism
represented, made it easy for them to accept the oddities of their new visitors with
mostly good grace. Their entrepreneurial spirit helped compensate for their limited
knowledge of other cultures, and many have succeeded remarkably well.
Most Thais are Buddhist, though a small percentage of the population is Muslim. You may
wonder about the role religion plays here. In fact, the philosophy of Buddhist thought is
more significant in the life of  the average
Thai than is the dogma of the religion. Most people don't allow themselves to get too
worked up over the problems and minor inconveniences of this life, after all, it is only a
passage into another one! Consider this, and the island's benign climate, its history of
bountiful harvests from the land and sea, and the almost complete absence of the kind of
strife that has devastated so many of the world's peoples, and it becomes easier to
understand the "take life as it comes" approach which continues to astonish and
perplex visitors.
Old
House on Samui Island
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