The Sawasdee Boy Statue is 30-60" tall and wears plain green pants. It shows the "wai" gesture, which originated in Buddhism and has similar origins to "namaste" in Hinduism. The "wai" gesture is a yogic posture of the palms and signifies the equal meeting of the two palms, indicating that the other party is treated as an equal human being. The word often spoken with the "wai" as a greeting or farewell is "sawatdi" (RTGS for สวัสดี), pronounced [sā.wàt.dīː] and sometimes romanized as "sawasdee". This verbal greeting is usually followed by "kha" when spoken by a female and by "khrap" when spoken by a male person (see note on Thai polite particles). The word "sawatdi" was coined in the mid-1930s by Phraya Upakit Silapasan of Chulalongkorn University. It is derived from the Sanskrit "svasti" (स्वस्ति meaning 'well-being'). Previously, it had been used in Thai only as a formulaic opening to inscriptions. In the early 1940s, the strongly nationalist government of Plaek Phibunsongkhram promoted its use in the government bureaucracy and the wider populace as part of a more comprehensive set of cultural edicts to modernize Thailand.
