Growing up in New Jersey, we adopted a Siamese cat. An aloof, beautiful and somewhat regal feline. My father dug into the encyclopedia (you know, those books that filled shelves before Wikipedia and Google existed), and discovered that the kings of Siam (Thailand) were named Rama. And so we named our cat Rama, which seemed so fitting a name.
Many years later I had the chance to live in Thailand. One day in the office, I was telling my colleagues about our cat, and I thought they would be impressed that we had bothered to look up the royal lineage in Thailand. Instead, they were horrified that we had named a cat after their monarch. They viewed this as a defamation to equate an animal with the monarchy.
In Thailand it is a crime to insult the king, and many languish in jail for publishing negatives stories, photos or opinions.
I was completely embarrassed by my cultural gaffe, and needless to say, I kept my cat story to myself after that.
Jon (male), United States
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