Abstract:
The objective of this research is to study how Thai people use the literary techniques to express their emotions in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami disaster through songs and poems, and to analyze Thai beliefs reflected in the composition of Thai tsunami songs and poems which are animism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The thesis selects songs and poems written by Thais which were inspired by tsunami disaster on 26 December 2004. The researcher collected the songs from professional musicians whose music albums are available in many stores. The poems were collected from both professional and amateur poets; these poems came from books and the internet. From the analysis, the researcher found that there are four principal messages in tsunami songs and poems, which are to console the victims, to encourage people to help the victims, to make people get together, and to learn to live in harmony with nature. The poets can effectively use Thai beliefs and literary techniques to move the heart of the readers and communicate the messages to them. The poets illustrate
the terrible scene of disaster so that the reader will sympathize with tsunami victims, and then the poets express Buddhist teachings to encourage the readers to perform moral acts by helping tsunami victims. Moreover, the poets also express Buddhist teachings to explain that the cause of the disaster was the greed of men. Nature was destroyed in order to serve the desire of men which is never satisfied, so nature loses its balance and collapses. The poets give the solution that if humans learn to be sufficient by understanding their greed well, then they will easily learn how to live in harmony with nature and prevent the future disasters. The researcher comes to the conclusion that tsunami songs and poems show that Thai beliefs still have strong influence in Thai society. In addition, Thai beliefs are timeless and still have value because they can offer solutions to many contemporary issues.
