Anonymous commented : No, AD. You and colin have more than one wife. You and him just do not accepting it, yet. The man-made laws can not change the facts of dharma. I only have two wives and lot of insignificant nameless wives. In Buddhism and traditional Thai culture, wife is a woman with whom you had have consensual sex. Real wife is part of marriage and part of family with children. In the west, "girlfriend" could be a woman with whom you had have sexual relationship. I used to court a muslim, Thai girl, but she was not my real girlfriend; she left a syrian man after being his wife for 2 months. She is now happily married to a Laos with 4 children, which I told before. There is no divorce in Buddhism; dharma is permanent and man-made laws will change the facts. The current urban cultural pollutions are resulted form decades of foreign influences. The minor wife practices are common with chinese tradition where the first wife became a prune and still wished to keep control of her husband by bring him new women and usually servant girls; you can read up on their practices. There is no minor wife in real Tai traditional practices and in Buddhism. The foreing missionaries began making mockery with traditional cultures and practices during the reign of King Rama IV and got worst since the reign of King Rama VI. In USA, there are those mixed up families and lot of single women with children including on welfares; the meaning of marriage very has no value anymore according to man-made laws. Nowaday, marriage could mean of the same sex marriage or other whatevers. Mormons and muslims are still practicing their belief systems including those newly arrived muslims with their wives and children. Mormons and muslims are abusing welfare system and using tax money to support their large families. In Buddhism, the responsibilities are belonging to the men who started their families, in which the family members much be treated equally.

patrickoniam commented : The reason why marriage laws are different in thailand from western countries is just that. We are not a western country. Yes, tourist is a big part of the Thai economy and yes, its good that there are foreigners that are living and working or planning to live and work in thailand. its good to have that diversity.not just economically.Im a thai living in australia and its very multi national here aswell. But historically, western countries like to 'take over' so to speak. we are only doing what we have been doing for the past 3 or 4 centuries, and that is, protecting our national interest. Look at the other countries in our region. Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam were colonised by the French, Hong Kong was colonised by the English and Philippines by the Spaniards and later the U.S. We are the ONLY country in the south east asian region not to have been colonised by ANY western country. And i for one, am very proud of that fact. And its because of laws like the marriage one we have in place, is why we still havent been colonised. I know that it probably wont happen in this day and age but its still how it is. And i can understand that alot of westerners like to live in Thailand because everything there is so relaxed, and i dont blame them. You cant do half the things you can in your own country like you can in Thailand.Or whether its to find a wife or just a change in pace, anything at all for what ever reason, if we just let people come in so freely and live and to own this and own that and to buy everything, because obviously, westerners have more money, then what is left for the Thai people? and where would our country be then?