Thai soap opera inspires traditional dress for ID cards

The Thai soap opera ‘Buppae Sanniwas’ (Love Destiny) is the hot ticket at the moment inspiring Thais to get back to their historical roots and ‘Thainess’, even for official documents.

Some Thai ladies have even gone so far as to dress in traditional outfits to take pictures for their ID cards in Phuket.

At Phuket Municipality Office a local woman, Ramayakorn Rattanawaleerametyakorn, dressed in Thai traditional outfit for her ID card. She’ll be stuck with that photo for the lifetime of her new Thai ID card – five years – even when the popularity of the TV soap wears off.

“I love the charm of Thai traditional outfit and now, ‘Buppie Sanniwas’ is very popular and there are many people dressing in Thai traditional costume for their official ID photos so I wanted to make one too. I want to be a part of those who preserve Thai culture,” she said.

However, the Phuket Municipality Office says that it’s OK for people to dress in traditional Thai style to make a new ID card, for a new card or in case of expiration, damage or loss.

But some traditional costumes show bare shoulders or bare upper arms and this is not acceptable.

The office opens from Monday – Friday, 8.30 am – 4.30 pm and Saturdays, 9 am – 4 pm.