
Thanks, Sam. To you I dedicate this first post in the series.

You say it; the Thai immediately understand it.
Not so for non-Thais. In order to appreciate this idiom, you need to know first that a water buffalo represents stupidity in the Thai culture. Only then would you come to see that playing the Thai fiddle (so) to a water buffalo is very much similar to the English idiom, "to cast pearls before swine," i.e. to offer something of value to someone whose lack of understanding prevents them from being able to appreciate it.
The only difference, which is quite subtle, is that "playing a fiddle to a water buffalo" has a narrower application. While the "pearls" in "to cast pearls before swine" could refer to both tangible and abstract things, the "playing of a fiddle" according to this Thai idiom is connected to something that is verbally expressed or audible, e.g. an explanation, a speech, a lecture, a sermon.
Example: Tom finally came to realize that explaining the importance of social media to a company that doesn't even care to establish its own website is like playing a fiddle to a water buffalo.
If you're wondering how a water buffalo has come to be associated with dumbness in our culture, consider the fact that we're kind of confused about how a pig has come to represent negative things from bad behavior to filth or even bigotry in other cultures, perhaps including yours, too. You see, pigs are cute and delicious to us.
Different things mean, uh, different things to peoples of different cultures (see my past article on this).

**Rhymes with "my;" just a bit shorter.
***Rhymes with "lung."
***Okay, so a "so/saw" isn't exactly like a fiddle or a violin. You have to sit down in order to play it properly, and the instrument stands perpendicular to the floor as you play it as opposed to being mounted on your shoulder.