Respect for the king
Thailand's King & Queen
Here's an article from The Nation about a Swiss man who has been charged with (and pleaded guilty to) insulting Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej (by vandalizing pictures of him with spray paint). I've heard about how seriously the government takes any type of disrespect toward the royal family, but this is the first instance of prosecution that I've encountered since we've been here.
The online version of the Boston Globe also has a story (read it here). These two accounts differ as to whether he could be sentenced to 15 years total, or 15 years for each of the 5 images that he defaced.
At any rate, this is another example of the importance of the king to the Thai people. When our team met with the Thai university students a couple of weeks ago, they mentioned the king and talked about how spiritually and morally significant he is as model for all Thai citizens to follow.
-Tom