Do Not Joke About the King, and That Includes With Friends
Lèse-majesté carries up to fifteen years in Thailand, applies to foreigners, and has ended people's lives over things said in a group chat. The affection for the monarchy is not performed.
Someone tells a joke at a dinner table in Bangkok. The Thai people at the table do not laugh, and do not look remotely shocked, and do not explain what is wrong. They simply do not laugh, and they change the subject, and the rest of the evening has a slightly different texture. The foreigner at the table thought it was about the Prime Minister. It was not about the Prime Minister.
Last verified 5 September 2026.
What the law says
Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, lèse-majesté, carries up to 15 years' imprisonment for any defamatory remark, insult or criticism concerning the King. It applies to citizens of other countries, and Thailand does not require an extradition treaty exercise to use it on a foreigner present in Thailand.
The scope is the problem. The offence is not confined to public statements. A group chat, a private message, a comment on a social account, a joke told in a bar with one Thai listener, and a review written to complain about a rule have all been the basis of charges. Tourist Police have worked cases for social media posts made years earlier, by visitors who had not understood the exposure.
There is a monopoly on the offence. Only the Thai state can bring a complaint, and only Thai courts convict. Nobody can privately sue you for it. This does not make it safe, because the state does use it, and the process can be triggered by a report from a member of the public even if the eventual decision to prosecute is not theirs.
In practice the law is applied unevenly and mostly to a small set of targets, which is precisely why it is a bad thing to rely on the unevenness.
What the affection actually is
King Rama X is genuinely and widely revered, and the reverence is not a formality that anyone maintains for foreigners. Most Thais you meet will tell you, unprompted, that the King has been very good for the country, and they mean it, and the opinion is not held lightly.
King Rama IX, Rama Bhumibol, died on 13 October 2016 after seven decades on the throne. The mourning was genuine and enormous, and the annual October anniversaries still draw crowds to the palace. The current King, Rama X, is his son.
The monarchy is genuinely popular in a way that is unusual anywhere in the world, and that is the whole point: the law is not a leftover from a monarchy people have moved on from. The political system has been unstable and contested for decades, and reverence for the King is the one genuinely unifying thing about it, which is part of why criticism of the King is treated as an attack on national unity rather than a political opinion.
So the instruction is not really about the law. It is that you are a guest in a country where this is a live, felt, central thing, and making a joke about it is not going to land as a joke no matter how the law is enforced.
The practical rules
Do not make jokes about the King, the royal family, or the monarchy. Not in a bar, not in a taxi, not as a bit in a group chat, not in a blog post. The risk is not the law, it is that the person telling the joke to you is now a witness.
Do not search for critical content about the monarchy on Thai social media. Screenshots get reported, and a search history or a screenshot of a result is a document.
Do not discuss politics with someone you have just met. This is not about lèse-majesté specifically, it is that Thai political conversation is delicate and you do not yet have the context to know which sentence is the problem.
Portrait images are treated seriously. Do not put your feet up, put a bag on top of one, place something on top of it, or use one as a prop for a photograph. This is the gesture that foreigners get wrong most often and it is everywhere: at airports, at buses, at the Grand Palace.
28 September, the King's birthday, is a public holiday. A great deal closes. Plan for it. Other royal anniversaries are also public holidays, and the dates are announced each year.
The rest of the etiquette
The wai, the greeting with the palms together, is how you say hello, thank you and sorry all at once. You do not have to perform it perfectly. Returning it is a small error that nobody minds; putting your head lower than a Thai person's when you do it is not.
Never touch anyone's head, including a child's. The head is the highest part of the body and it is not touched casually.
Never point the soles of your feet at a person, a Buddha image, or a door, and do not step over someone who is lying down or sitting on the floor. The feet are the lowest part of the body and the worst thing you can offer with them.
Women should not hand things directly to a monk, and should not touch a monk. Place items on a cloth or a tray if a monk is involved. At the Grand Palace, the dress code is enforced properly: shoulders and knees covered, no see-through fabric, no sleeveless tops, and men in trousers rather than shorts.
Temples are not tourist attractions in the way the Grand Palace is. Dress modestly, take your shoes off where indicated, and do not point your feet at a Buddha image while seated on the floor, which is the single most common error made in a Thai temple.
The one-line version
Treat the King the way you would treat a head of state you have no personal relationship with: respectfully, and without material about him. Everything else on this page is ordinary Thai etiquette and mostly foreign error; this one is ordinary Thai etiquette and mostly the only one that is genuinely dangerous.
