หนังสือภาษาอังกฤษสำหรับวัฒนธรรมไทย

English for Thai Culture ภาษาอังกฤษสาหรบั วัฒนธรรมไทย

ISBN : 000-000-000-000-0

Author : Nikorn Polyiam

Advisory Board

Phratheppariyatayachan, Dr.

Phra Sunthon Thammamethi, Dr.

Phra Sri Pariyatithada, Asst.Prof.

Phramongkolsuttakit

Phrakhru Sumeth Chanthasiri, Dr..

Editorial board : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekachat Jarumetheechon

Assoc. Prof. Wichian Chabutbuntharik

Qualified inspector : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ruangdej Pankhueankhat

Asst. Prof. Dr. Weerakan Kanokkamonles

Asst. Prof. Dr. Khamphirapap Inthanu

Proof Reading : Dr. Wirat Phuthongngoen

Phramaha Kittithat Siripunyo

Phramaha Sawai Siripanyo

Booklet : Suthiwit Wilailid

Anusat Woraboonpoomsuk

Printing :

จานวนการพิมพ์ :

จดั พิมพ์โดย :

พิมพ์ที่ : Field of Teaching English, Faculty of Education,

Buriram Buddhist College,

Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University

281 Moo 13, Prakhonchai-Buriram Road, Samet

Subdistrict, Muang Buriram District, Buriram Province

31000

Preface

Thai language is important Because it is the national language and part of
Thai culture. English is also important because it is the national language and part of
the British culture. But the specialty of language is not only important part of the
culture. It is also a communication tool to transfer knowledge technology from one
culture to another, therefore every language has its own significance.

The purpose of this book is to provide students and those interested in
the guidelines for studying English for Thai Culture course to have a better
understanding and appreciation of the study of English in Thai culture.

This book consists of 9 chapters, the author hopes that this book will be
useful for learners and those interested.

Nikorn Polyiam
November 2021

Content 2

Preface Introduction Page
Content Old English A
Chapter 1 Middle English B
Modern English 1
Chapter 2 History of Learning English in Thailand 1
Chapter 3 Exercise 1 4
Reference 9
Chapter 4 10
History of Thailand 12
Chapter 5 Thailand in Ancient Period 13
Thailand in Modern Age
Exercise 2 14
Reference 14
31
Thai Language 58
Thai Alphabet 59
Words in Thai
Sentences in Thai 60
Meaning in Thai 64
Exercise 3 71
Reference 74
77
Thai Culture 80
Thai food 81
Thai Costumes
Festivals in Thailand 82
Thai Amulets 83
Exercise 4 84
Reference 89
91
Thai Tradition 96
97

98

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Birth and Tonsure traditions in Thailand Page
Families, Buddhist Monk Ordination, and Wedding Ceremony 98
in Thailand
Funerals in Thailand 103
Thai Holidays, Celebrations, and Festivals in Thailand 107
Exercise 5 108
Reference 110
111
Chapter 6 Religion in Thailand
Buddhism 112
Christ 112
113
Islam 114
Exercise 6 117
118
Reference
119
Chapter 7 Tourism in Thailand 119
Historical Sites in Thailand 121
Natural Attractions in Thailand 123
Exercise 7 124
Reference
125
Chapter 8 Thai Products 128
Exercise 8 129
130
Reference 132
Chapter 9 Conclusion 134
Bibliography

Biography

4

Chapter 1
Introduction

English has been regarded as the first global Lingua Franca. It has become
part and parcel of almost every existing field. We use it as the international language
to communicate and in many fields ranging from business to entertainment. The
English Language opens an ocean of career opportunities to those who speak this
language anywhere in the world. Similarly, it has turned into an inevitable
requirement for various fields and professions like medicine, computing and more.
With the fast-evolving world, it is essential to have a common language which we
can understand to make the best use of the data and information available. As a
result, the English Language has become a storehouse of various knowledge ranging
from social to political fields.

It’s easy to see just how important English is around the world. Many
international businesses conduct meetings in English; universities teach courses in
English and, around the world, tourists and travelers use English as a common
language. But how did English become so important? Well, it all goes back to the
British Empire, which at its peak covered 25% of the earth’s surface. During colonial
times, British rulers often obliged the people in those countries to speak English
rather than their native language. Although the origins of English as a global language
has a complicated past, the language has left an important mark on media, trade
and business. If you’re still not sure about whether to learn the language, then check
out the story of English below.

Old English
Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from

the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century,
sometime after the Norman invasion. While indicating that the establishment of
dates is an arbitrary process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a
period of full inflexions, and a synthetic language. Perhaps around 85% of Old English
words are no longer in use, but those that survived are the basic elements
of Modern English vocabulary.

Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out
of Ingvaeonic (also known as North Sea Germanic) dialects from the 5th century. It
came to be spoken over most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which

5

became the Kingdom of England. This included most of present-day England, as well
as part of what is now southeastern Scotland, which for several centuries belonged
to the kingdom of North Umbria. Other parts of the island – Wales and most
of Scotland – continued to use Celtic languages, except in the areas of Scandinavian
settlements where Old Norse was spoken. Celtic speech also remained established
in certain parts of England: Medieval Cornish was spoken all over Cornwall and in
adjacent parts of Devon, while Cumbric survived perhaps to the 12th century in parts
of Cumbria, and Welsh may have been spoken on the English side of the Anglo-
Welsh border. Norse was also widely spoken in the parts of England which fell
under Danish law.

Old English literacy developed after Christianization in the late 7th century.
The oldest surviving work of Old English literature is Cædmon's Hymn, which was
composed between 658 and 680 but not written down until the early 8th
century. There is a limited corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries,
but the oldest coherent runic texts (notably the inscriptions on the Franks Casket)
date to the early 8th century. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around
the 8th century.

Alfred the Great statue in Winchester, Hampshire.
The 9th-century English King proposed that primary education be taught in
English, with those wishing to advance to holy orders to continue their studies in
Latin. With the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (outside the Danelaw)
by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and
literature became standardized around the West Saxon dialect (Early West Saxon).
Alfred advocated education in English alongside Latin, and had many works
translated into the English language; some of them, such as Pope Gregory I's
treatise Pastoral Care, appear to have been translated by Alfred himself. In Old

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English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, but
Alfred chiefly inspired the growth of prose.

A later literary standard, dating from the late 10th century, arose under the
influence of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and was followed by such writers as
the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham ("the Grammarian"). This form of the language is known
as the "Winchester standard", or more commonly as Late West Saxon. It is considered
to represent the "classical" form of Old English. It retained its position of prestige
until the time of the Norman Conquest, after which English ceased for a time to be
of importance as a literary language.

The history of Old English can be subdivided into:
 Prehistoric Old English (c. 450 to 650); for this period, Old English is mostly
a reconstructed language as no literary witnesses survive (with the exception
of limited epigraphic evidence). This language, or closely related group of
dialects, spoken by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, and pre-dating
documented Old English or Anglo-Saxon, has also been called Primitive Old
English.
 Early Old English (c. 650 to 900), the period of the oldest manuscript
traditions, with authors such as Cædmon, Bede, Cynewulf and Aldhelm.
 Late Old English (c. 900 to 1170), the final stage of the language leading up to
the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent transition to Early
Middle English.
The Old English period is followed by Middle English (12th to 15th

century), Early Modern English (c. 1480 to 1650) and finally Modern English (after
1650), and in Scotland Early Scots (before 1450), Middle Scots (c. 1450 to 1700)
and Modern Scots (after 1700).

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Middle English

The dialects of Middle English c. 1300

The transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English occurred at
some time during the 12th century. The influence of Old Norse aided the
development of English from a synthetic language with relatively free word order, to
a more analytic or isolating language with a more strict word order. Both Old English
and Old Norse (as well as the descendants of the latter, Faroese and Icelandic) were
synthetic languages with complicated inflections. The eagerness of Vikings in
the Danelaw to communicate with their Anglo-Saxon neighbours resulted in the
erosion of inflection in both languages. Old Norse may have had a more profound
impact on Middle and Modern English development than any other
language. Simeon Potter notes: "No less far-reaching was the influence of
Scandinavian upon the in flexional endings of English in hastening that wearing away
and leveling of grammatical forms which gradually spread from north to south."

Viking influence on Old English is most apparent in the more indispensable
elements of the language. Pronouns, modals, comparatives, pronominal adverbs (like
"hence" and "together"), conjunctions and prepositions show the most marked Danish
influence. The best evidence of Scandinavian influence appears in extensive word
borrowings, yet no texts exist in either Scandinavia or in Northern England from this
period to give certain evidence of an influence on syntax. The change to Old English
from Old Norse was substantive, pervasive, and of a democratic character. Like close

8

cousins, Old Norse and Old English resembled each other, and with some words in
common, they roughly understood each other; in time the inflections melted away
and the analytic pattern emerged. It is most "important to recognize that in many
words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional
elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages that
only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. In the
mixed population which existed in the Danelaw these endings must have led to
much confusion, tending gradually to become obscured and finally lost." This
blending of peoples and languages happily resulted in "simplifying English grammar."

While the influence of Scandinavian languages was strongest in the dialects
of the Danelaw region and Scotland, words in the spoken language emerge in the
10th and 11th centuries near the transition from the Old to Middle English. Influence
on the written language only appeared at the beginning of the 13th century, likely
because of a scarcity of literary texts from an earlier date.

The Norman conquest of England in 1066 saw the replacement of the top
levels of the English-speaking political and ecclesiastical hierarchies by Norman rulers
who spoke a dialect of Old French known as Old Norman, which developed in
England into Anglo-Norman. The use of Norman as the preferred language of
literature and polite discourse fundamentally altered the role of Old English in
education and administration, even though many Normans of this period were
illiterate and depended on the clergy for written communication and record-keeping.
A significant number of words of Norman origin began to appear in the English
language alongside native English words of similar meaning, giving rise to such
Modern English synonyms as pig/pork, chicken/poultry, calf/veal, cow/beef,
sheep/mutton, wood/forest, house/mansion, worthy/valuable, bold/courageous,
freedom/liberty, sight/vision, eat/dine.

The role of Anglo-Norman as the language of government and law can be
seen in the abundance of Modern English words for the mechanisms of government
that are derived from Anglo-Norman: court, judge, jury, appeal, parliament. There
are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the chivalric cultures that arose in
the 12th century; an era of feudalism and crusading.

Words were often taken from Latin, usually through French transmission.
This gave rise to various synonyms including kingly (inherited from Old
English), royal (from French, which inherited it from Vulgar Latin), and regal (from
French, which borrowed it from classical Latin). Later French appropriations were
derived from standard, rather than Norman, French. Examples of resultant cognate

9

pairs include the words warden (from Norman), and guardian (from later French;
both share a common Germanic ancestor).

The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not result in immediate changes to the
language. The general population would have spoken the same dialects as they had
before the Conquest. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English
had no standard language, only dialects that derived from the dialects of the same
regions in the Anglo-Saxon period.

Early Middle English
Early Middle English (1150–1300) has a largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary

(with many Norse borrowings in the northern parts of the country), but a greatly
simplified inflectional system. The grammatical relations that were expressed in Old
English by the dative and instrumental cases are replaced in Early Middle English
with prepositional constructions. The Old English genitive -es survives in the -'s of the
modern English possessive, but most of the other case endings disappeared in the
Early Middle English period, including most of the roughly one dozen forms of
the definite article ("the"). The dual personal pronouns (denoting exactly two) also
disappeared from English during this period.

Gradually, the wealthy and the government Anglicized again, although
Norman (and subsequently French) remained the dominant language of literature
and law until the 14th century, even after the loss of the majority of the continental
possessions of the English monarchy. The loss of case endings was part of a general
trend from inflections to fixed word order that also occurred in other Germanic
languages (though more slowly and to a lesser extent), and therefore it cannot be
attributed simply to the influence of French-speaking sections of the population:
English did, after all, remain the vernacular. It is also argued that Norse immigrants to
England had a great impact on the loss of inflectional endings in Middle English. One
argument is that, although Norse- and English-speakers were somewhat
comprehensible to each other due to similar morphology, the Norse-speakers'
inability to reproduce the ending sounds of English words influenced Middle English's
loss of inflectional endings.

Important texts for the reconstruction of the evolution of Middle English
out of Old English are the Peterborough Chronicle, which continued to be compiled
up to 1154; the Ormulum, a biblical commentary probably composed
in Lincolnshire in the second half of the 12th century, incorporating a unique
phonetic spelling system; and the Ancrene Wisse and the Katherine Group, religious

10

texts written for anchoresses, apparently in the West Midlands in the early 13th
century. The language found in the last two works is sometimes called the AB
language.

More literary sources of the 12th and 13th centuries include Lawman's
Brut and The Owl and the Nightingale.

Some scholars have defined "Early Middle English" as encompassing English
texts up to 1350. This longer time frame would extend the corpus to include many
Middle English Romances (especially those of the Auchinleck manuscript c. 1330).

14th century
From around the early 14th century, there was significant migration

into London, particularly from the counties of the East Midlands, and a
new prestige London dialect began to develop, based chiefly on the speech of the
East Midlands, but also influenced by that of other regions.[16] The writing of this
period, however, continues to reflect a variety of regional forms of English.
The Ayenbite of Inwyt, a translation of a French confessional prose work, completed
in 1340, is written in a Kentish dialect. The best known writer of Middle
English, Geoffrey Chaucer, wrote in the second half of the 14th century in the
emerging London dialect, although he also portrays some of his characters as
speaking in northern dialects, as in the "Reeve's Tale".

In the English-speaking areas of lowland Scotland, an independent
standard was developing, based on the Northumbrian dialect. This would develop
into what came to be known as the Scots language.

A large number of terms for abstract concepts were adopted directly
from scholastic philosophical Latin (rather than via French). Examples are "absolute",
"act", "demonstration", "probable".

Late Middle English
The Chancery Standard of written English emerged c. 1430 in official

documents that, since the Norman Conquest, had normally been written in
French.[16] Like Chaucer's work, this new standard was based on the East-Midlands-
influenced speech of London. Clerks using this standard were usually familiar
with French and Latin, influencing the forms they chose. The Chancery Standard,
which was adopted slowly, was used in England by bureaucrats for most official

11

purposes, excluding those of the Church and legalities, which used Latin and Law
French (and some Latin), respectively.

The Chancery Standard's influence on later forms of written English is
disputed, but it did undoubtedly provide the core around which Early Modern
English formed. Early Modern English emerged with the help of William Caxton's
printing press, developed during the 1470s. The press stabilized English through a
push towards standardization, led by Chancery Standard enthusiast and
writer Richard Pynson. Early Modern English began in the 1540s after the printing and
wide distribution of the English Bible and Prayer Book, which made the new standard
of English publicly recognizable, and lasted until about 1650.

Modern English
Modern English (sometimes New English or NE (ME) as opposed to Middle

English and Old English) is the form of the English language spoken since the Great
Vowel Shift in England, which began in the late 14th century and was completed in
roughly 1550.

With some differences in vocabulary, texts from the early 17th century,
such as the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, are considered
to be in Modern English, or more specifically, are referred to as using Early Modern
English or Elizabethan English. English was adopted in regions around the world, such
as North America, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, Australia and New Zealand through
colonization by the British Empire.

Modern English has many dialects spoken in many countries throughout
the world, sometimes collectively referred to as the Anglosphere. These dialects
include American English, Australian English, British English (containing English, Welsh
English and Scottish English), Canadian English, Caribbean English, Hiberno-English,
Indian English, Pakistani English, Nigerian English, New Zealand English, Philippine
English, Singaporean English, and South African English.

According to the Ethnologies, there are almost 1 billion speakers of English
as a first and second language.[3] English is spoken as a first or a second language in
many countries, with the most native speakers being in the United States, the United
Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland; there are also large
populations in India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Southern Africa. It "has more non-
native speakers than any other language, is more widely dispersed around the world
and is used for more purposes than any other language". Its large number of
speakers, plus its worldwide presence, has made English a common language ("lingua

12

franca") "of the airlines, of the sea and shipping, of computer technology, of science
and indeed of (global) communication generally".

History of learning English in Thailand

During the reigns of King Rama 2 and 3 of Rattanakosin, Western

ambassadors came into contact with Thailand. But they can't negotiate anything
because no Thai people speak English at all. They have to use Malays as translators,
who do not have profound expertise in English either. They have to translate English
into Malay and then translate Malay into Thai again. So there are many discrepancies.

Before ascending to the throne as King Rama IV, Prince Mongkut was
the first lord who had a close relationship with the West, the French Patriarch Jean
Baptiste Pallégua, since he was still in his lent at Wat Samorai or Wat Rajathiwas. The
temple is adjacent to the Konceptchan Temple or Ban Khmer temple where
Patriarch Pallergua is the rector regularly visits to exchange knowledge. When he
moved to be the abbot of Wat Bowonniwet, His Highness saw that foreigners would
come to have influence in this area and Siam had to be involved. Learning English
will make you understand each other's thoughts. At that time, apart from no Thai
people speaking to foreigners, they can't know the events outside the country as
well. Besides the stories of Chinese, Indian, and Malay people who traveled there. It's
not clear, so Thai people only live in the old world.

For this reason, His Highness opened the first English language teaching of
Siam.

Dr. Jesse Caswell, an American missionary known in the chronicles as
"Doctor Haskan," who was the first English language teacher, recorded a diary on July
1, 1845, saying:

“Today I started teaching English to Chao Fa at the temple. I teach from
9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. In the class there are 15 people, 1 in 3 are monks, the rest are
ordinary villagers. I teach on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.”

The first generation of English students, besides having the Crown Prince or
"Chao Fa Yai" and then there are also "Chao Fa Noi" or King Pinklao Chao Yu Hua,
Somdej Krom Phraya Damrong Rajanupap, Somdej Krom Phraya Thewawong
Waropakarn, Somdej Krom Phraya Damrong Rajanupap. As for the common people,
there was Somdet Chao Phraya Borom Maha Sri Suriyawong (Chuang Bunnag) when
he was "Luang Nai Sit" and Chao Phraya Thipakornwong Mahakosathibodi (Kham
Bunnag), etc.

13

The knowledge of English allows this generation of students to be able to
talk and negotiate with foreigners and order foreign textbooks to study until they can
bring Western science to the country's development.

Dr. Caswell refused to pay for teaching but instead asked to teach
Christianity in Wat Bowon, to which Prince Mongkut gave permission to use a pavilion
in front of the church as a place to teach. It shows the openness of Buddhism and
does not consider other religions as competitors to exclude and proves the faith of
Buddhists.

When Prince Mongkut ascended the throne, the missionaries brought the
honor to spread in various countries, causing students in Europe, America and Asia to
write letters to ask for their knowledge of Siam, which he had a royal letter to
answer as he wished which this type of royal handwriting still appears today.

14

Exercise 1

1. Summarize a brief history of the English language in each era.
2. How long has learning English in Thailand been? Briefly explained
3. Why do Thai people need to learn English?

15

Reference

Nation, I. S. P. (1990). Teaching and learning vocabulary. New York: Newbury House.
Nation. I S P. (2003). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

The Access Center. (2000). Using mnemonic instruction to facilitate access to the
general education curriculum. Accessed April 20, 2020. Available from

http://www.ldonline.org/article/15577?theme=print

Wilkins, D. A. (1972). Linguistics in Language Teaching. London: Edward Arnold.

Chapter 2
History of Thailand

Thailand is a country located in Southeastern Asia bordering the Andaman
Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. Neighboring countries include Burma, Cambodia, Laos,
and Malaysia. The geography consists of a mountain range in the west and a
southern isthmus that joins the landmass with Malaysia. The government system is a
constitutional monarchy; the chief of state is the king, and the head of government is
the prime minister. Thailand has a mixed economic system in which there is a variety
of private freedom, combined with centralized economic planning and government
regulation. Thailand is a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Thailand in Ancient Period

The formal name of Thailand is Kingdom of Thailand (Ratcha Anachak
Thai). The term for citizen(s) is Thai (singular and plural). By some translations
Thailand means "Land of the Free" (Prathet Thai) and this is an apt name for this
country where anything goes. By other translations it simply means “Land of the

15

Thais.” The Thais call their country “Muang Thai,” which also means “Land of the
Free.” They call themselves the “Khon Tha,” which means “free people.” “Siam”
and “Siamese” are terms mainly used by foreigners. From 1855 to 1939 and from
1946 to 1949 Thailand was known as Siam—Prathet Sayam, a historical name
referring to people in the Chao Phraya Valley—the name used by Europeans since
1592).

Thai nationalism is summed up by the expression “king, country and
religion.” The land known today as Thailand has a long history of human habitation
dating back to the Neolithic Period. Excavations of settlements from the Bronze Age
at Ban Chiang uncovered ancient earthenware believed to date from around 3600
B.C. The Mon, Khmer, and Tai tribes later migrated from southern China. Presently,
the Mon are settled in Myanmar and the Khmer in Cambodia, while the Tai set up
their Thai city states, starting in northern Thailand, with three main cities: Lanna,
Sukhothai, and Phayao.

A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as
Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been
taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a
constitutional monarchy. In alliance with Japan during World War II, Thailand became
a US treaty ally in 1954 after sending troops to Korea and later fighting alongside the
United States in Vietnam. Thailand since 2005 has experienced several rounds of
political turmoil including a military coup in 2006 that ousted then Prime Minister
Thaksin Chinnawat, followed by large-scale street protests by competing political
factions in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Demonstrations in 2010 culminated with clashes
between security forces and pro-Thaksin protesters, elements of which were armed,
and resulted in at least 92 deaths and an estimated $1.5 billion in arson-related
property losses. Thaksin's youngest sister, Yinglak Chinnawat, in 2011 led the Puea
Thai Party to an electoral win and assumed control of the government. Yinglak's
leadership was almost immediately challenged by historic flooding in late 2011 that
had large swathes of the country underwater and threatened to inundate Bangkok
itself. Throughout 2012 the Puea Thai-led government struggled with the opposition
Democrat Party to fulfill some its main election promises, including constitutional
reform and political reconciliation. Since January 2004, thousands have been killed
and wounded in violence associated with the ethno-nationalist insurgency in
Thailand's southern Malay-Muslim majority.

The spelling of Thai names, places and words sometimes varies. This is
because the Thai language has its own script that is quite different from western

16

Roman writing and the way Thai sounds are interpreted can be a judgment call or a
matter of opinion.

Historical Themes of Thailand
Thailand lies at the converging point of the empires of China, India, Burma,

the Khmers and Vietnam. The traditional founding date for Thailand is 1238. Thais
and Burmese have traditionally been enemies. Unlike other nations in Southeast
Asia, Thailand was never colonized.

Little is known of the earliest inhabitants of what is now Thailand, but
5,000-year-old archaeological sites in the northeastern part of the country are
believed to contain the oldest evidence of rice cultivation and bronze casting in Asia
and perhaps in the world. In early historical times, a succession of tribal groups
controlled what is now Thailand. The Mon and Khmer peoples established powerful
kingdoms that included large areas of the country. They absorbed from contact with
South Asian peoples religious, social, political, and cultural ideas and institutions that
later influenced the development of Thailand's culture and national identity.

The Tai, a people who originally lived in southwestern China, migrated into
mainland Southeast Asia over a period of many centuries. The first mention of their
existence in the region is a twelfth-century A.D. inscription at the Khmer temple
complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, which refers to syam, or "dark brown" people
(the origin of the term Siam) as vassals of the Khmer monarch. In 1238 a Tai chieftain
declared his independence from the Khmer and established a kingdom at Sukhothai
in the broad valley of the Mae Nam (river) Chao Phraya, at the center of modern
Thailand. Sukhothai was succeeded in the fourteenth century by the kingdom of
Ayutthaya. The Burmese invaded Ayutthaya and in 1767 destroyed the capital, but
two national heroes, Taksin and Chakkri, soon expelled the invaders and reunified
the country under the Chakkri Dynasty.

Over the centuries Thai national identity evolved around a common
language and religion and the institution of the monarchy. Although the inhabitants
of Thailand are a mixture of Tai, Mon, Khmer, and other ethnic groups, most speak a
language of the Tai family. A Tai language alphabet, based on Indian and Khmer
scripts, developed early in the fourteenth century. Later in the century a famous
monarch, Ramathibodi, made Theravada Buddhism the official religion of his
kingdom, and Buddhism continued into the twentieth century as a dominant factor
in the nation's social, cultural, and political life. Finally, the monarchy, buttressed
ideologically by Hindu and Buddhist mythology, was a focus for popular loyalties for

17

more than seven centuries. In the late twentieth century the monarchy remained
central to national unity.

During the nineteenth century, European expansionism, rather than
Thailand's traditional enemies, posed the greatest threat to the kingdom's survival.
Thai success in preserving the country's independence (it was the only Southeast
Asian country to do so) was in part a result of the desire of Britain and France for a
stable buffer state separating their dominions in Burma, Malaya, and Indochina. More
important, however, was the willingness of Thailand's monarchs, Mongkut (Rama IV,
1851-68) and Chulalongkorn (Rama V, 1868-1910), to negotiate openly with the
European powers and to adopt European-style reforms that modernized the country
and won it sovereign status among the world's nations. Thailand (then known as
Siam) paid a high price for its independence, however: loss of suzerainty over
Cambodia and Laos to France and cession of the northern states of the Malay
Peninsula to Britain. By 1910 the area under Thai control was a fraction of what it
had been a century earlier.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, Thailand's political system,
armed forces, schools, and economy underwent drastic changes. Many Thai studied
overseas, and a small, Western-educated elite with less traditional ideas emerged. In
1932 a bloodless coup d'etat by military officers and civil servants ended the
absolute monarchy and inaugurated Thailand's constitutional era. Progress toward a
stable, democratic political system since that time, however, has been erratic.
Politics has been dominated by rival military-bureaucratic cliques headed by
powerful generals. These cliques have initiated repeated coups d'etat and have
imposed prolonged periods of martial law. Parliamentary institutions, as defined by
Thailand's fourteen constitutions between 1932 and 1987, and competition among
civilian politicians have generally been facades for military governments.

Geography, Culture and History in Thailand
Thailand's 514,000 square kilometers lie in the middle of mainland

Southeast Asia. The nation's axial position influenced many aspects of Thailand's
society and culture. The earliest speakers of the Tai language migrated from what is
now China, following rivers into northern Thailand and southward to the Mae Nam
(river) Chao Phraya Valley. The fertile floodplain and tropical monsoon climate
ideally suited to wet-rice (thamna) cultivation, attracted settlers to this central area
rather than to the marginal uplands and mountains of the northern region or the
Khorat Plateau to the northeast. By the twelfth century, a number of loosely

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connected rice-growing and trading states flourished in the upper Chao Phraya
Valley.

Starting in the middle of the fourteenth century, these central chiefdoms
gradually came under the control of the kingdom of Ayutthaya at the southern
extremity of the floodplain. Successive capitals, built at various points along the river,
became centers of great Thai kingdoms based on rice cultivation and foreign
commerce. Unlike the neighboring Khmer and Burmese, the Thai continued to look
outward across the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea toward foreign ports of
trade. When European imperialism brought a new phase in Southeast Asian
commerce in the late 1800s, Thailand (known then as Siam) was able to maintain its
independence as a buffer zone between British-controlled Burma to the west and
French-dominated Indochina to the east.

Ancient History of Thailand
Over the course of millennia, migrations from southern China peopled

Southeast Asia, including the area of contemporary Thailand. The earliest known
inhabitation of present-day Thailand dates to the Paleolithic period, about 20,000
years ago. Archaeology has revealed evidence in the Khorat Plateau in the northeast
of prehistoric inhabitants who forged bronze implements as early as 3000 B.C. and
cultivated rice during the fourth millennium B.C.

Thailand is home to one of the world's oldest rice-based civilizations. Rice
is believed to have first been being cultivated in there around 3,500 B.C. Evidence of
ancient rice agriculture includes rice marking found on pottery fragments unearthed
in graves unearthed at Non Noktha village in Khon Kaen province in northeast
Thailand that have been dated to be 5,400 years old and rice husks found in pottery
in the north, at Pung Hung Cave, Mae Hong Son dated to be around 5,000 years old.
People that lived in a site called Khok Phanom Di in Thailand between 4,000 and
3,500 year ago practiced rice farming and buried their dead facing east in shrouds of
bark and asbestos fibers. The oldest rice grains ever discovered in China; they date
back to about 5000 B.C.

The pace of economic and social development was uneven and
conditioned by climate and geography. The dense forests of the Chao Phraya Valley
in the central part of Thailand and the Malay Peninsula in the south produced such
an abundance of food that for a long time there was no need to move beyond a

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hunting-and- gathering economy. In contrast, rice cultivation appeared early in the
highlands of the far north and hastened the development of a more communal
social and political organization.

Bronze Age and Thailand
Some natural copper contains tin. During the fourth millennium in present-

day Turkey, Iran and Thailand man learned that these metals could be melted and
fashioned into a metal—bronze—that was stronger than copper, which had limited
use in warfare because copper armor was easily penetrated and copper blades
dulled quickly. Bronze shared these limitations to a lesser degree, a problem that
was rectified until the utilization of iron which is stronger and keeps a sharp edge
better than bronze, but has a much higher melting point.

The Bronze Age lasted from about 4,000 B.C. to 1,200 B.C. During this
period everything from weapons to agricultural tools to hairpins was made with
bronze (a copper-tin alloy). Weapons and tools made from bronze replaced crude
implements of stone, wood, bone, and copper. Bronze knives are considerable
sharper than copper ones. The terms the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age were
coined by the Danish historian Christian Jurgen Thomsen in his Guide to
Scandinavian Antiquities (1836) as a way of categorizing prehistoric objects. The
Copper Age was added latter.

Bronze is much stronger than copper. It is credited with making war as we
know it today possible. Bronze sword, bronze shield and bronze armored chariots
gave those who had it a military advantage over those who didn't have it. Scientists
believe, the heat required to melt copper and tin into bronze was created by fires in
enclosed ovens outfitted with tubes that men blew into to stoke the fire. Before the
metals were placed in the fire, they were crushed with stone pestles and then mixed
with arsenic to lower the melting temperature. Bronze weapons were fashioned by
pouring the molten mixture (approximately three parts copper and one part tin) into
stone molds.

According to the Library of Congress: Excavations at Ban Chiang, a small
village on the Khorat Plateau in northeastern Thailand, have revealed evidence of
prehistoric inhabitants who may have forged bronze implements as early as 3000 B.C.
and cultivated rice around the fourth millennium B.C. If so, the Khorat Plateau would
be the oldest rice-producing area in Asia because the inhabitants of China at that
time still largely consumed millet. Archaeologists have assembled evidence that the
bronze implements found at the Thai sites were forged in the area and not

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transported from elsewhere. They supported this claim by pointing out that both
copper and tin deposits (components of bronze) are found in close proximity to the
Ban Chiang sites. If these claims are correct, Thai bronze forgers would have
predated the "Bronze Age," which archaeologists had traditionally believed began in
the Middle East around 2800 B.C. and in China about a thousand years later.
World's First Bronze Age Culture in Thailand

Bronze artifacts discovered in northeastern Thailand, around the village of
Ban Chiang, were originally dated to 3600 to 4000 B.C., more than a thousand years
before the Bronze Age was thought to have begun in the Middle East. The discovery
of these tools resulted in a major revision of theories regarding the development of
civilization in Asia.

The first discoveries of early Bronze Age culture in Southeast Asia were
made by Dr. G. Solheim II, a professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii. In
the early 1970s, he found a socketed bronze ax, dated to 2,800 B.C., at a site in
northern Thailand called Non Nok Tha. The ax was about 500 years older than the
oldest non-Southeast-Asia bronze implements discovered in present-day Turkey and
Iran, where it is believed the Bronze Age began.

Non Nok Tha also yielded a copper tool dating back to 3,500 B.C. and
some double molds used in the casting of bronze, dating back to 2300 B.C,
significantly older than similar samples found in India and China where it is believed
bronze metal working began. Before Solheim it was thought that the knowledge of

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bronze working was introduced to Southeast Asia from China during the Chou
dynasty (1122-771 B.C.). Solheim is sometimes called "Mr. Southeast Asia” for his role
in putting ancient Southeast Asia on the cultural and historical map.

Ban Chiang Archeological Site
Ban Chiang is an archeological site located on the Khorat Plateau in

northeastern Thailand. Among the discoveries made at a 124-acre mound site there
were bracelets and bronze pellets (used for hunting with splits-string bows), and
lovely painted ceramics first dated to 3500 B.C.

The Ban Chiang site was discovered in 1966 by Steve Young, an
anthropology and government student at Harvard College who was living in the
village conducting interviews for his senior honors thesis. Young, a speaker of Thai,
was familiar with Solheim’s work and his theory of possible ancient origins of
civilization in Southeast Asia. One day while walking down a path in Ban Chiang with
his assistant, an art teacher in the village school, Young tripped over a root of a
Kapok tree and fell on his face in the dirt path. Under him were the exposed tops of
pottery jars of small and medium sizes. Young recognized that the firing techniques
used to make the pots were very rudimentary but that the designs applied to the
surface of the vessels were unique. He took samples of pots to Princess Phanthip
Chumbote who had the private museum of Suan Pakkad in Bangkok and to Chin Yu
Di of the Thai Government's Fine Arts Department Later, Elisabeth Lyons, an art
historian on the staff of the Ford Foundation, sent sherds from Ban Chiang to the
University of Pennsylvania for dating.

During the first formal scientific excavation in 1967, several skeletons,
together with bronze grave gifts, were unearthed. Rice fragments have also been
found, leading to the belief that the Bronze Age settlers were probably farmers. The
site's oldest graves do not include bronze artifacts and are therefore from a Neolithic
culture; the most recent graves date to the Iron Age.

Most of the bronze made Ban Chiang is ten percent tin and 90 percent
copper. This it turns out is an ideal proportion. Any less tin, the metal fails to reach
maximum hardness. Any more, the metal becomes too brittle and there is more of a
chance it will break during forging. The Ban Chiang culture also developed bronze
jewelry with a silvery sheen by adding 25 percent tin to the surface layers of the
bronze at a heat of 1000°F and plunging it quickly into water.

Iron was developed at Ban Chiang around 500 B.C. Ceramic funerary
vessels dating between 3600 B.C. and 1000 B.C. contained the remains infants

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between one month and two years old. Others contain remains of rice, fish and
turtles. The vessels come in a number of different styles and sizes. The largest are
three feet tall. Some are painted with human, animal and plant figures as well as
abstract circular and linear designs. Others have chord makings made by placing
chord in wet clay.

Ban Chiang Culture
According to the UNESCO World Heritage site description of Ban Chiang:

“Until the 1960s. South-east Asia was considered to have been a culturally backward
area in prehistory. The generally accepted view was that its cultural development
resulted from external influences, principally from China to the north and India to
the west. Recent archaeological work at Nok Nok Tha and, later, Ban Chiang on the
Khorat plateau of north-east Thailand has demonstrated this view to be incorrect:
this area of modem Thailand has been shown by excavation and field survey to have
been the center of an independent, and vigorous, cultural development in the 4th
millennium B.C. which shaped contemporary social and cultural evolution over much
of southeast Asia and beyond into the Indonesian archipelago.

Settlement of the Khorat plateau began around 3600 B.C. The settlers
came from the neighboring lowlands, bringing with them a hunter-gatherer economy
that was beginning to develop sedentary farming, with domesticated cattle, pigs, and
chickens and an elementary form of dry-rice cultivation. The settled village life of
this Early Period at Ban Chiang lasted until c. 1000 B.C. Agricultural methods were
refined and improved, along with other skills such as house construction and pottery
manufacture. The equipment of burials reflects an increasing social complexity. Of
especial importance was the growing use of bronze, for weapons and personal
ornament in the earlier phase but spreading to more utilitarian applications in the
later phases.

The Middle Period (1000-500/300 B.C) was notable for the introduction of
wet-rice farming, as evidenced by the presence of water buffalo bones, and
technological developments in ceramic and metal production, It was a period of
considerable prosperity, as shown by the grave-goods, and one which saw the
introduction of iron into common use.

In the Late Period (500/300 BC-AD 200/300) there was further social and
technological development especially in ceramic design and production. Although
occupation appears to have ended at Ban Chiang in the 3rd century AD, at other

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sites in the region, such as Non Maung and Ban Prasat, settlement was continuous
into the 16th century and later.

Ban Chiang is considered to have been the principal settlement in this area
of the Khorat plateau and has given its name to a distinctive archaeological culture.
Scores of contemporary sites have been discovered in the region, at several of which
excavations have been carried out. The prehistoric settlement lies beneath the
modern village of Ban Chiang (established by Laotian refugees in the late 18th
century). It is a low oval mound some 500m by 1.3km. Only very limited excavation
has been possible in the settlement site, but this has established the existence of
deep stratification and long cultural continuity.

The main excavations have taken place on the perimeter of the modem
village, where a large number of burials from all three periods, with rich ceramic and
metal grave-goods, have been revealed and recorded. One of the excavations has
been preserved for public viewing, with a permanent cover building: there is an
excellent site museum in another part of the village.

Better Dating of the Ban Chiang Culture and Looting of the Ban Chiang Site
According to Wikipedia: “The first dating of the artifacts using the

thermoluminescence technique resulted in a range from 4420 B.C. to 3400 B.C.,
which would have made the site the earliest Bronze Age culture in the world.
However, with the 1974/75 excavation, sufficient material became available for
radiocarbon dating, which resulted in more recent dates—the earliest grave was
about 2100 B.C., the latest about 200 AD. Bronze making began circa 2000 B.C., as
evidenced by crucibles and bronze fragments. Bronze objects include bracelets,
rings, anklets, wires and rods, spearheads, axes and adzes, hooks, blades, and little
bells.

However, the date of 2100 B.C. was obtained by Joyce White on the basis
of six AMS radiocarbon dating crushed potsherds containing rice chaff temper and
one on the basis of rice phytoliths. The potsherds came from mortuary offerings. This
method of dating is now known to be unreliable, because the clay from which the
pots were made might well itself contain old carbon. Specialists in radiocarbon
dating now encourage that the method is not employed. A new dating initiative for
this site has now been undertaken by Professor Thomas Higham of the AMS dating
laboratory at Oxford University, in conjunction with Professor Charles Higham of the
University of Otago. This has involved dating the bones from the people who lived at
Ban Chiang and the bones of animals interred with them. The resulting

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determinations have been analyzed using the Bayesian statistic OxCal 4.0, and the
results reveal that the initial settlement of Ban Chiang took place by Neolithic rice
farmers in about 1500 B.C., with the transition to the Bronze Age in about 1000 B.C.
These dates are a mirror image of the results from the 76 determinations obtained
from a second and much richer Bronze Age site at Ban Non Wat. The mortuary
offerings placed with the dead at Ban Chiang during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages
were in fact, few and poor.

The site made headlines in January 2008 when thousands of artifacts from
the Ban Chiang cultural tradition and other prehistoric traditions of Thailand were
found to illegally be in several California museums and other locations. The plot
involved smuggling the items into the country and then donating them to the
museums in order to claim large tax writes offs. There were said to be more items in
the museums than at the site itself. This was brought to light during high profile raids
conducted by the police after a National Park Service agent had posed under cover
as a private collector. If the US government wins its case, which is likely to take
several years of litigation, the artifacts are to be returned to Thailand.

Early Proto-Kingdoms in Thailand
Joe Cummings wrote in the Lonely Planet guide for Thailand: “With no

written records or chronologies it is difficult to say with certainty what kind of
cultures existed in Thailand before the middle of the first millennium AD. However,
by the 6th century an important network of agricultural communities was thriving as
far south as modern-day Pattani and Yala, and as far north and northeast as
Lamphun and Muang Fa Daet (near Khon Kaen).

Before the end of the first millennium B.C., tribal territories had begun to
coalesce into protohistorical kingdoms whose names survive in Chinese dynastic
annals of the period.Funan, a state of substantial proportions, emerged in the second
century B.C. as the earliest and most significant power in Southeast Asia. Its Hindu
ruling class controlled all of present-day Cambodia and extended its power to the
center of modern Thailand. The Funan economy was based on maritime trade and a
well-developed agricultural system; Funan maintained close commercial contact
with India and served as a base for the Brahman merchant-missionaries who brought
Hindu culture to Southeast Asia.

On the narrow isthmus to the southwest of Funan, Malay city states
controlled the portage routes that were traversed by traders and travelers journeying
between India and Indochina. By the tenth century A.D. The strongest of them,

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Tambralinga (present-day Nakhon Si Thammarat), had gained control of all routes
across the isthmus. Along with other city-states on the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra,
it had become part of the Srivijaya Empire, a maritime confederation that between
the seventh and thirteenth centuries dominated trade on the South China Sea and
exacted tolls from all traffic through the Strait of Malacca. Tambralinga adopted
Buddhism, but farther south many of the Malay city-states converted to Islam, and
by the fifteenth century an enduring religious boundary had been established on the
isthmus between Buddhist mainland Southeast Asia and Muslim Malaya.

Although the Thai conquered the states of the isthmus in the thirteenth
century and continued to control them in the modern period, the Malay of the
peninsula were never culturally absorbed into the mainstream of Thai society. The
differences in religion, language, and ethnic origin caused strains in social and
political relations between the central government and the southern provinces into
the late twentieth century.

Early Mon and Khmer Influence in Thailand
In the A.D. ninth century, Mon and Khmer people established kingdoms

that included large areas of what is now Thailand. Much of what these people
absorbed from contacts with South Asian peoples—religious, social, political, and
cultural ideas and institutions—later influenced the development of Thailand’s
culture and national identity. In the second century B.C., the Hindu-led state of
Funan in present-day Cambodia and central Thailand had close commercial contact
with India and was a base for Hindu merchant-missionaries. In the southern Isthmus
of Kra, Malay city-states controlled routes used by traders and travelers journeying
between India and Indochina (present-day Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam).

The closely related Mon and Khmer peoples entered Southeast Asia along
migration routes from southern China in the ninth century B.C. The Khmer settled in
the Mekong River Valley, while the Mon occupied the central plain and northern
highlands of modern Thailand and large parts of Burma. Taking advantage of Funan's
decline in the sixth century A.D., the Mon began to establish independent kingdoms,
among them Dvaravati in the northern part of the area formerly controlled by Funan
and farther north at Haripunjaya.

Dvaravati Civilization
Nakhon Pathom in central Thailand was the center of the Mon Dvaravati

culture, which arose in the 9th century and quickly declined in the 11th century

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under pressure from invading Khmers. A Mon kingdom – Hariphunchai – in today’s
Lamphun Province, held out until the late 12th or early 13th century, when it was
annexed by northern Thais.

Joe Cummings wrote in the Lonely Planet guide for Thailand: “Dvaravati is
a Sanskrit name meaning Place of Gates, referring to the city of Krishna in the Indian
epic poem Mahabharata. The French art historian Georges Coedès discovered the
name on some coins that were excavated in the Nakhon Pathom area. The Dvaravati
culture is known for its art work, including Buddha images (showing Indian Gupta
influence), stucco reliefs on temple walls and in caves, architecture, exquisite
terracotta heads, votive tablets and various sculptures. Dvaravati may have also been
a cultural relay point for the Funan and Chenla cultures of ancient Laos and
Cambodia to the northeast and east. The Chinese, through the travels of the famous
pilgrim Xuan Zang, knew the area as Tuoluobodi, between Sriksetra (Myanmar) and
Isanapura (Laos-Cambodia). [Source: Joe Cummings, Lonely Planet guide for Thailand]

The Mon were receptive to the art and literature of India, and for centuries
they were the agents for diffusing Hindu cultural values in the region. The frequent
occurrence of Sanskrit place-names in modern Thailand is one result of the long and
pervasive Indian influence. In the eighth century, missionaries from Ceylon (present-
day Sri Lanka) introduced the Mon to Theravada Buddhism. The Mon embraced
Buddhism enthusiastically and conveyed it to the Khmer and the Malay of
Tambralinga. The two Indian religious systems--Hindu and Buddhist--existed side by
side without conflict. Hinduism continued to provide the cultural setting in which
Buddhist religious values and ethical standards were articulated. Although Buddhism
was the official religion of the Mon and the Khmer, in popular practice it
incorporated many local cults.

In spite of cultural dominance in the region, the Mon were repeatedly
subdued by their Burmese and Khmer neighbors.In the tenth century Dvaravati and
the whole of the Chao Phraya Valley came under the control of Angkor.

Khmer and Srivijaya Civilzations of Thailand
In the tenth century Dvaravati and the whole of the Chao Phraya Valley

came under the control of Angkor. The Khmer maintained the Hindu-Buddhist
culture received from the Mon but placed added emphasis on the Hindu concept of
sacred kingship. The history of Angkor can be read in the magnificent structures built
to glorify its monarchy. Ultimately, however, obsession with palaces and temples led
the Khmer rulers to divert too much manpower to their construction and to neglect

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the elaborate agricultural system-- part of Angkor's heritage from Funan--that was the
empire's most important economic asset.

The Khmer empire lasted from the ninth to fifteenth centuries A.D. It was
centered at Angkor (near modern Siem Reap) in Cambodia. The Khmers ruled much
of Southeast Asia from Angkor Wat. In present-day Thailand a regional headquarters
was set up in Lopburi. The Khmers referred to the Thais as the Syamas, or Siamese,
then a group of people who lived in forest settlements.

Joe Cummings wrote in the Lonely Planet guide for Thailand: “The Khmer
kingdom, with its capital in present-day Cambodia, expanded westward into a large
swath of present-day Thailand between the 9th to 11th centuries. Much of Thailand
made up the Khmer frontier with administrative capitals in Lopburi, Sukhothai and
Phimai. Roads and temples were built linking these centres to the capital at Angkor.
As a highly developed society, Khmer culture infused the border regions with its art,
language, religion and court structure. Monuments from this period located in
Kanchanaburi, Lopburi and many northeastern towns were constructed in the Khmer
style, most notably found in Angkor.

“Elements of the Khmer religions – Hinduism, Theravada Buddhism and
Mahayana Buddhism – were intermixed as Lopburi became a religious centre, and
some elements of each Buddhist school – along with Hinduism – remain in Thai
religious and court ceremonies today. A number of Thais became mercenaries for the
Khmer armies in the early 12th century, as depicted on the walls of Angkor Wat. The
Khmers called the Thais ‘Syam’, and this was how the Thai kingdom eventually
came to be called Syam, or Sayam. In Myanmar and northwestern Thailand the
pronunciation of Syam became ‘Shan’.

“Meanwhile southern Thailand – the upper Malay Peninsula – was under
the control of the Srivijaya empire, the headquarters of which is believed to have
been located in Palembang, Sumatra, between the 8th and 13th centuries. The
regional centre for Srivijaya was Chaiya, near modern Surat Thani. Remains of Srivijaya
art can still be seen in Chaiya and its environs.” Srivijaya was a maritime empire that
lasted for 500. It ruled a string of principalities in what is today Southern Thailand,
Malaysia and Indonesia.

Origin of the Thais
The Thai people are thought to have originated in the southern Chinese

province of Yunnan. They are related to other people that either live there now or

28

originated there such as the Dai and the Lao. The Thais began migrating southward in
successive waves, perhaps as early as A.D. 1050.

Speaking of the "Thai" actually means speaking about members of the Tai-
Kadai language family, which consists of six subgroups, defined by their geographical
settlement: 1) Western Thai (Shan); 2) Southern Thai (Siamese) ; 3) Mekong Thai (Lao,
etc); 4) Upland Thai ("Coloured" Thai); 5) Eastern Thai (Nung, etc); 6) Kadai (Li, Kelao,
Laqua). This way we can find many members of this language family in China,
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

The origin of the Thai and Thai-(Dai-) related people is matter of some
debate. They have been in southwest China and Southeast Asia for some time.
According to some their ancestors are mentioned in historical records dating back to
the A.D. 1st century. The Dai established powerful local kingdoms such as Mong Mao
and Kocambi in Dehong in the 10th and 11th centuries, the Oinaga (or Xienrun) in
Xishuangbanna in the 12th century and the Lanna (or Babai Xifu) in northern
Thailand in the 13th to 18th century.

According to the Library of Congress: The forebears of the modern Thai
were Tai-speaking people living south of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) on the
mountainous plateau of what is now the Chinese province of Yunnan. Early Chinese
records (the first recorded Chinese reference to the Tai is dated sixth century B.C.)
document the Tai cultivating wetland rice in valley and lowland areas.During the first
millennium A.D., before the emergence of formal states governed by Tai-speaking
elites, these people lived in scattered villages drawn together into muang, or
principalities. Each muang was governed by a chao, or lord, who ruled by virtue of
personal qualities and a network of patron-client relationships. Often the constituent
villages of a muang would band together to defend their lands from more powerful
neighboring peoples, such as the Chinese and Vietnamese.

The Dai have a tradition of dominating other ethnic groups such as the
De’ang, Blang, Hani, Lahu, Achang and Jingpo. In some cases the Dai were powerful
landlords and other tribes were like their serfs. Dai-controlled areas were on the
fringes of the Chinese empire and separated from the main population centers by
rugged mountains and rain forests. Beginning in the 14th century, the Chinese
approved the Dai kings and nobles and officially recognized their control over other
ethnic groups.

29

Thailand in Modern Age
A noble of Mon descent, General Chakri succeeded Taksin in 1782 as Rama

I, the first king of the Chakri dynasty. In the same year he founded a new capital city
across the Chao Phraya River in an area known as Rattanakosin Island. (While
settlements on both banks were commonly called Bangkok, both the Burney Treaty
of 1826 and the Roberts Treaty of 1833 refer to the capital as the City of Sia-Yut'hia.)
In the 1790s, Burma was defeated and driven out of Siam, as it was then called. Lan
Na also became free of Burmese occupation, but was reduced to the Kingdom of
Chiang Mai. The king of the new dynasty was installed as a tributary ruler of
the Chakri monarch.

After the coup of removing Taksin, it is probable that Chakri and his family
had planned the ascent to the throne already during his predecessor Taksin. After
his coronation, he operated a systematic bloody extermination of the followers of
Taksin, which corresponds to the typical approach of the usurpers in Thai history.

The new dynasty moved the capital of Thonburi to Rattanakosin,
today's Bangkok. Bangkok had previously been a small settlement with a fort, but it
was strategically located on the eastern shores of the Chao Phraya river and was
known among the foreign traders as the 'key to Siam'. New palaces and temples
were built. The Emerald Buddha and Wat Phra Kaeo were founded. The king's goal
was to transfer the old splendor of Ayutthaya to the new capital. In his new capital,
Rama I crowned himself in 1785 in a splendid ceremony.

During the reign of Rama I, the foreign policy was still focused on the
threat represented by Burma. Burma's new king Bodawpaya ordered the nine
Burmese armies in a surprise attack against Siam, while in 1786 the Burmese army
invaded the Three Pagoda Pass. It came to the "Nine Armies' Wars". In all cases, the
Siamese remained victorious after the fighting. In 1805 Lanna (North Thailand) was
largely brought under control of Bangkok. Rama I also attempted unsuccessfully to
conquer the important trading ports of Tenasserim.

At the time of Rama I, Cambodia was practically administered as a
province of Siam, as rival Vietnam had to deal with internal problems. Only when the
new Vietnamese emperor Gia Long had ascended to the throne was the influence of
Siam in Cambodia again contested. Relations with Vietnam took on a prominent
place in this epoch. There were no significant relations with the European colonial
powers during the reign of Rama I.

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One of the most important achievements of Rama I was the codification of
all the country's laws into a work of 1,700 pages called the Three Seals Law. This law
remained valid in its basic traits until the beginning of the twentieth century.

Siam also had a high level of cultural achievement. The Buddhist canon
(Pāli Canon) was collected and reformulated within the framework of a Grand
Council. The arts were promoted, as well as the construction of new palaces and
temples in the capital. Literature and theatre also thrived; in this epoch were
produced works such as the important, 3,000-page Ramakian. Works from Chinese,
Mon, Javanese, Persian, and Indian languages were translated into Thai.

Rama I, the first king of the Chakri dynasty, continued the traditions of
Ayutthaya in many respects. However, the new empire was still more tightly
centralised than its predecessors. A particularly important innovation was the
stronger emphasis on rationality in the relationship between the monarch and his
subjects. Rama I was the first king in the history of the country who justified his
decisions before the highest officials.

Maintaining the status quo under Rama II and Rama III
King Rama II (Phra Phutthaloetla) was the son of Rama I. His accession to

the throne was accompanied by a plot, during which 40 people were killed. The
calmness of the interior and the exterior, which during the reign of Rama II and his
successor Rama III (Phra Nang Klao), prevailed mainly through giving in to conflicts
and building good relations with influential clans in the country.

During Rama II's reign, the kingdom saw a cultural renaissance after the
massive wars that plagued his predecessor's reign; particularly in the fields of arts and
literature. Poets employed by Rama II included Sunthorn Phu the drunken writer
(Phra Aphai Mani) and Narin Dhibet (Nirat Narin).

Foreign relations were initially dominated by relations with the
neighbouring states, while those with European colonial powers started to enter in
the background. In Cambodia and Laos, Vietnam gained the supremacy, a fact which
Rama II initially accepted. When a rebellion broke out in Vietnam under Rama III in
1833–34, he tried to subdue the Vietnamese militarily, but this led to a costly defeat
for the Siamese troops. In the 1840s, however, the Khmer themselves succeeded in
expelling the Vietnamese, which subsequently led to the greater influence of Siam in
Cambodia. At the same time, Siam kept sending tribute to China.

There was a serious touch with British colonial interests when Siam
conquered the Sultanate Kedah on the Malay Peninsula in 1821. Kedah belonged to

31

the sphere of interest of Great Britain. In the following year, Siam had to recognize
the pre-conquest status after tough negotiations with the British envoy John
Crawford. There was also the cautious resumption of trade and missionary activity in
this epoch. In particular, British traders such as Robert Hunter ("discoverer" of the
conjoined brothers Chang and Eng, the original "Siamese twins") or James Hayes, but
also missionaries from Europe and the United States like Jacob Tomlin, Karl
Gützlaff, Dan Beach Bradley and Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix became active in Siam. In
1825 an agreement was signed with British emissary Henry Burney; Siam recognised
British colonial possessions on the Malay Peninsula and made commercial
concessions. This agreement was due not least to the rapid British success in the First
Anglo-Burmese War.

A potentially dangerous event occurred with the Anouvong's Rebellion in
1827, when the troops of the tributary King Anouvong of the Kingdom of
Vientiane advanced towards Bangkok. They were, however, destroyed, which
strengthened the position of Siam in Laos. The Lao-population of the areas west of
the Mekong was relocated to Thai provinces in Isan.

Under Rama II and Rama III, culture, dance, poetry and above all the
theatre reached a climax. The temple Wat Pho was built by Rama III, known as the
first university of the country.

The reign of Rama III was finally marked by a division of the aristocracy
with regard to foreign policy. A small group of advocates of the takeover of Western
technologies and other achievements were opposed by conservative circles, which
proposed a stronger isolation instead. Since the kings Rama II and Rama III, the
conservative-religious circles largely stuck with their isolationist tendency.

The death of Rama III in 1851 also signified the end of the old traditional
Siamese monarchy: there were already clear signs of profound changes, which were
implemented by the two successors of the king.

32

Modernization under Rama IV and Rama V (1851–1910

King Chulalongkorn
When King Mongkut ascended the Siamese throne, he was severely
threatened by the neighbouring states. The colonial powers of Britain and France had

already advanced into territories which originally belonged to the Siamese sphere of
influence. Mongkut and his successor Chulalongkorn (Rama V) recognised this

situation and tried to strengthen the defense forces of Siam by modernization, to
absorb Western scientific and technical achievements, thus avoiding colonization.

The two monarchs, who ruled in this epoch, were the first with Western

formation. King Mongkut had lived 26 years as a wandering monk and later as an
abbot of Wat Bowonniwet Vihara. He was not only skilled in the traditional culture

and Buddhist sciences of Siam, but he had also dealt extensively with modern
western science, drawing on the knowledge of European missionaries and his
correspondence with Western leaders and the Pope. He was the first Siamese

monarch to speak English.
As early as 1855, John Bowring, the British governor in Hong Kong,

appeared on a warship at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River. Under the influence
of Britain's achievements in neighbouring Burma, King Mongkut signed the so-called
"Bowring Treaty", which abolished the royal foreign trade monopoly, abolished

import duties, and granted Britain a most favourable clause. The Bowring Treaty
meant the integration of Siam into the world economy, but at the same time, the

royal house lost its most important sources of income. Similar treaties were
concluded with all Western powers in the following years, such as in 1862

33

with Prussia and 1869 with Austria-Hungary. From the Prussian emissary
Count Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg comes a much-respected travel report about
Siam. The survival diplomacy, which Siam had cultivated abroad for a long time,
reached its climax in this epoch.

The integration into the global economy meant to Siam that it became a
sales market for Western industrial goods and an investment for Western capital. The
export of agricultural and mineral raw materials began, including the three products
rice, pewter and teakwood, which were used to produce 90% of the export turnover.
King Mongkut actively promoted the expansion of agricultural land by tax incentives,
while the construction of traffic routes (canals, roads and later also railways) and the
influx of Chinese immigrants allowed the agricultural development of new regions.

Mongkut's son, Chulalongkorn (Rama V), ascended to the throne in 1868.
He was the first Siamese king to have a full Western education, having been taught
by a British governess, Anna Leonowens, whose place in Siamese history has been
fictionalised as The King and I. At first Rama V's reign was dominated by the
conservative regent, Somdet Chaophraya Sri Suriwongse, but when the king came of
age in 1873 he soon took control. He created a Privy Council and a Council of State,
a formal court system and budget office. He announced that slavery would be
gradually abolished and debt-bondage restricted.

Western colonialism and cessation of protectorates

34

Territorial cessation of Siamese protectorates in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. The result of the Franco-Siamese War was the cession of Laos (medium
purple) to France in 1893.

Occupation of Trat by French troops (1904).

Two kings, Mongkut and Chulalongkorn, witnessed the expansion of
both France and Great Britain to increase their colonial territories in Southeast Asia
and encircle Siam. From the west, the British conquered India, Burma and Malaya,
and from the east, the French conquered South Vietnam, Vietnam and claimed to be
"protecting" Cambodia, while Siam lost its extraterritorial rights in these areas to the
new conquerors.

The construction of Kra Isthmus Canal, planned by a group of
entrepreneurs led by the engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, was not constructed after
the British conquered Kongbaung-ruled Burma in the Third Anglo-Burmese War in
1885. A major event was the Paknam incident, when, on 13 July 1893, French
cannon boats entered the Chao Phraya River toward Bangkok and were fired upon
from a Siamese coastal fort, leading to the Franco-Siamese War. In the same year,
Siam was compelled to conclude a treaty with France, in which the territory of Laos,
located east of the Mekong, was annexed to French Indochina. The French forced
Siam to refrain from any influence on its former vassal state. In 1887, the Indo-
Chinese Union was founded. In 1896, British and French concluded a treaty which
made a border between their colonies, with Siam defined as a buffer state.

After the Franco-Siamese War of 1893, King Chulalongkorn realised the
threat of the western colonial powers, and accelerated extensive reforms in the

35

administration, military, economy and society of Siam, completing the development
of the nation from a traditional feudalist structure based on personal domination and
dependencies, whose peripheral areas were only indirectly bound to the central
power (the King), to a centrally-governed national state with established borders and
modern political institutions.

The Entente Cordiale of 8 April 1904 ended the rivalry between Great
Britain and France over Siam. French and British zones of influence in Siam, were
outlined, with the eastern territories, adjacent to French Indochina, becoming a
French zone, and the western, adjacent to Burmese Tenasserim, a British zone. The
British recognized a French sphere of influence to the east of the River Menam's
basin; in turn, the French recognised British influence over the territory to the west of
the Menam basin. Both parties disclaimed any idea of annexing Siamese territory.

The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 defined the modern border between
Siam and British Malaya. The treaty stated that Siam relinquished their claims
over Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis to Great Britain, which were previously
part of the semi-independent Malay sultanates of Pattani and Kedah. A series of
treaties with France fixed the country's current eastern border with Laos
and Cambodia.

In 1904, 1907 and 1909, there were new border corrections in favour of
France and Great Britain. When King Chulalongkorn died in 1910, Siam had achieved
the borders of today's Thailand. In 1910 he was peacefully succeeded by his
son Vajiravudh, who reigned as Rama VI. He had been educated at Royal Military
Academy Sandhurst and University of Oxford and was an anglicised Edwardian
gentleman. Indeed, one of Siam's problems was the widening gap between the
Westernised royal family and upper aristocracy and the rest of the country. It took
another 20 years for Western education to extend to the rest of the bureaucracy and
the army.

36

Siam in 1900

Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, the royal reception hall built in European
architectural style. Construction was started by Rama V, but was completed in 1915.

The successor of King Chulalongkorn was King Rama VI in October 1910,
better known as Vajiravudh. He had studied law and history as the Siamese crown
prince in Great Britain. After his ascension to the throne, he forgave important
officials for his devoted friends, who were not part of the nobility, and even less
qualified than their predecessors, an action which had hitherto been unprecedented
in Siam. In his reign (1910–1925) many changes were made, which brought Siam
closer to modern countries. For example, the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, all
the citizens of his country had to accept Family names, women were encouraged to
wear skirts and long hair fringements and a citizenship law, Principle of the "Ius
sanguinis" was adopted. In 1917 the Chulalongkorn University was founded
and school education was introduced for all 7 to 14-year-olds.

37

King Vajiravudh was a favour of literature, theatre, he translated many
foreign literatures into Thai. He created the spiritual foundation for a kind of Thai
nationalism, a phenomenon unknown in Siam. He was based on the unity of nation,
Buddhism, and kingship, and demanded loyalty from his subjects to all these three
institutions. King Vajiravudh also took refuge in an irrational and contradictory anti-
Sinicism. As a result of the mass immigration, in contrast to previous immigration
waves from China, women and entire families had also come into the country, which
meant that the Chinese were less assimilated and retained their cultural
independence. In an article published by King Vajiravudh under a pseudonym, he
described the Chinese minority as Jews of the East.

King Vajiravudh also created some new social associations, for example,
the Wild Tiger Corps (1911), a kind of Scout movement.

In 1912, a Palace revolt, plotted by young military officers, tried
unsuccessfully to overthrow and replace the king.[35] Their goals were to change the
system of government, overthrowing the ancien régime and replacing it with a
modern, Westernised constitutional system, and perhaps to replace Rama VI with a
prince more sympathetic to their beliefs.,[36]: 155  but the king went against the
conspirators, and sentenced many of them to long prison sentences. The members
of the conspiracy consisted of military and the navy, the status of the monarchy, had
become challenged.

World War I

Siamese Expeditionary Forces in Paris Victory Parade, 1919

In 1917 Siam declared war on German Empire and Austria-Hungary, mainly
to gain favor with the British and the French. Siam's token participation in World War I
secured it a seat at the Versailles Peace Conference, and Foreign
Minister Devawongse used this opportunity to argue for the repeal of the 19th-

38

century unequal treaties and the restoration of full Siamese sovereignty. The United
States obliged in 1920, while France and Britain followed in 1925. This victory gained
the king some popularity, but it was soon undercut by discontent over other issues,
such as his extravagance, which became more noticeable when a sharp postwar
recession hit Siam in 1919. There was also the fact that the king had no son. He
obviously preferred the company of men to women (a matter which of itself did not
much concern Siamese opinion, but which did undermine the stability of the
monarchy due to the absence of heirs).

Thus when Rama VI died suddenly in 1925, aged only 44, the monarchy
was already in a weakened state. He was succeeded by his younger
brother Prajadhipok.

By 1925–1926, Siamese extraterritorial rights were restored a period of five
years thereafter.

Early years of constitutional monarchy (1932–1945)
Revolution and difficult compromise

King Prajadhipok signing the Permanent Constitution of Siam on 10 December 1932
A small circle from the rising bourgeoisie of former students (all of whom

had completed their studies in Europe – mostly Paris), supported by some military
men, seized power from the absolute monarchy on 24 June 1932 in an almost

39

nonviolent revolution. This was also called the "Siamese Revolution". The group,
which called themselves Khana Ratsadon or sponsors, gathered officers, intellectuals
and bureaucrats, who represented the idea of the refusal of the absolute monarchy.

The Khana Ratsadon installed a constitutional monarchy with Prajadhipok
as king at the top – a corresponding constitution was proclaimed on 10 December of
the year. On the same day, the experienced and rather conservative lawyer Phraya
Manopakorn Nititada, was appointed as first Siamese Prime Minister. By selecting a
non-party head of government, the Khana Ratsadon wanted to avoid the suspicion
that the coup had only been carried out in order to come to power itself. However,
the overthrow of the monarchy did not lead to free elections, political unions were
forbidden. Bureaucracy and the military shared the power in the National Assembly.
The constitution was annexed to the monarchist ideology ("nation, religion, king") as a
fourth pillar.

In the following period it became clear how heterogeneous the group of
Khana Ratsadon was, and it fell into several rival wings, especially those of the high
officers, the younger officers and the civilians. For the predecessor of the liberal and
civilian wing, Pridi Phanomyong it was not done with the mere change of government
form. He sought a profound transformation of the country's social and economic
system. To this end, he presented an economic plan in January 1933, which became
known as a "Yellow Cover Dossier" (Thai: สมุดปกเหลือง). Among other things, he
proposed the nationalisation of farmland, Industrialization by Public Company,
general health care and pension insurance. The King, the rather conservative Prime
Minister Phraya Manopakorn, but also the high-ranking officers in the Khana Ratsadon
around Phraya Songsuradet and even Pridi's friend and co-worker Prayun
Phamonmontri.

Fearing that Pridis's liberal wing, who had the majority in the National
Assembly, would decide to take a decision, Phraya Manopakorn dissolved the
parliament in April, imposed the emergency, and rescinded the constitutional part,
which had not yet been a year old. He imposed a law against Communist activities,
which was directed not so much against the almost insignificant Communist Party of
Thailand, but rather against the alleged Communist projects Pridis. However, the
younger officers of the Khana Ratsadon resisted and countered the oppressive
actions of Phraya Manopakorn lead to another coup d'état only one year later, in
June 1933, resulting in the appointment of Phraya Phahon as Siam's second prime
minister.

40

Khana Ratsadon's rise
After the fall of Phraya Manopakorn, Phraya Phahon became the new

Prime Minister. Pridi Phanomyong was expelled from the charge of communism, but
his economic plan was largely ignored. Only a few of his ideas, such as the expansion
of primary schools and industrialisation with state enterprises, were gradually
implemented. In 1933, Pridis founded the Thammasat University in Bangkok, which
with its liberal self-image has remained a symbol of freedom and democracy. At the
same time, the nationalist group led by Phibunsongkhram strengthened in the
People's Party, oriented to the totalitarian ideas of Italy, Germany, Japan, but also
the "young Turks" (Kemal Atatürk).

The many unsettled constitutional roles of the crown and the
dissatisfaction with Khana Ratsadon, especially Pridi's post in the new government,
culminated in October 1933 in a reactionary Boworadet Rebellion staged by royalist
factions. The royalists were led by Prince Boworadet, Prajadhipok's minister of
defence. His forces who mobilised from provincial garrisons captured the Don Muang
Aerodrome and led Siam into small-scale civil War. After heavy fighting in the
outskirts of Bangkok, the royalists were finally defeated and Prince Boworadet left for
exile in French Indochina.

After the Boworadet rebellion and some other disagreements with Khana
Khana Ratsadon thereafter, King Prajadhipok abdicated the throne and exiled himself.
He was replaced as king by his nine-year-old nephew Prince Ananda Mahidol (King
Rama VIII), who at that time was attending school in Lausanne, Switzerland. Plaek
Phibunsongkhram's popularity increased from his role in leading anti-rebellion forces.

During this time, Pridi played an important role in modernising Thai public
administration: completed Thai legal codes, created the local government system.

41

Dictatorship of Phibunsongkhram

Phibun welcomes students of Chulalongkorn University, at Bangkok's Grand Palace –

8 October 1940.
When Phibulsonggram succeeded Phraya Phahon as Prime Minister in

September 1938, the military and civilian wings of Khana Ratsadon diverged even
further, and military domination became more overt. Phibunsongkhram began
moving the government towards militarism, and totalitarianism, as well as

building personality cult around him.
The defeat of France in Battle of France was the catalyst for Thai

leadership to begin an attack on French Indochina. This began with smaller conflicts
in 1940 and resulted in the Franco-Thai War in 1941. It suffered a heavy defeat in the
sea Battle of Ko Chang, but it dominated on land and in the air. The Empire of Japan,

already the dominant power in the Southeast Asian region, took over the role of the
mediator. The negotiations ended the conflict with Thai territorial gains in the French

colonies Laos and Cambodia.
By 1942 he had issued a series of cultural decrees' '(ratthaniyom)' or Thai

cultural mandates, which reflected the desire for social modernisation, but also an

authoritarian and exaggerated nationalist spirit. First, in 1939 he changed the
country's name of Siam to Thailand (Prathet Thai) (Thai: ประเทศไทย). This is based on

the idea of a "Thai race", a Pan-Thai nationalism whose program is the integration of
the Shan, the Lao and other Tai peoples, such as those in Vietnam, Burma and South
China, into a "Great Kingdom of Thailand" (Thai: มหาอาณาจักรไทย). Other decrees

urged the citizens to embrace Western-style modernization.

42

World War II
After the Franco-Thai war ended, the Thai government declared neutrality.

When the Japanese invaded Thailand on 8 December 1941, a few hours after
the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan demanded the right to move troops across
Thailand to the Malayan frontier. Phibun accepted Japanese demands after a brief
resistance. The government improved relations with Japan by signing a military
alliance in December 1941. Japanese armies used the country as a base for their
invasions of Burma and Malaya. Hesitancy, however, gave way to enthusiasm after
the Japanese rolled their way through Malaya in a "Bicycle Blitzkrieg" with surprisingly
little resistance. The following month, Phibun declared war on Britain and the United
States. South Africa and New Zealand declared war on Thailand on the same
day. Australia followed soon after. All who opposed the Japanese alliance were
sacked from his government. Pridi Phanomyong was appointed acting regent for the
absent King Ananda Mahidol, while Direk Jayanama, the prominent foreign minister
who had advocated continued resistance against the Japanese, was later sent to
Tokyo as an ambassador. The United States considered Thailand to be a puppet of
Japan and refused to declare war. When the allies were victorious, the United States
blocked British efforts to impose a punitive peace.

The Thais and Japanese agreed that Shan State and Kayah State were to
be under Thai control. On 10 May 1942, the Thai Phayap Army entered Burma's
eastern Shan State, the Thai Burma Area Army entered Kayah State and some parts
of central Burma. Three Thai infantry and one cavalry division, spearheaded by
armored reconnaissance groups and supported by the air force, engaged the
retreating Chinese 93rd Division. Kengtung, the main objective, was captured on 27
May. Renewed offensives in June and November saw the Chinese retreat
into Yunnan. The area containing the Shan States and Kayah State was annexed by
Thailand in 1942. They would be ceded back to Burma in 1945.

The Seri Thai (Free Thai Movement) was an underground resistance
movement against Japan founded by Seni Pramoj, the Thai ambassador
in Washington. Led from within Thailand from the office of the regent Pridi, it
operated freely, often with support from members of the royal family such as
Prince Chula Chakrabongse, and members of the government. As Japan neared
defeat and the underground anti-Japanese resistance Seri Thai steadily grew in
strength, the National Assembly forced out Phibun. His six-year reign as the
military commander-in-chief was at an end. His resignation was partly forced by his
two grandiose plans gone awry. One was to relocate the capital from Bangkok to a

43

remote site in the jungle near Phetchabun in north-central Thailand. The other was
to build a "Buddhist city" near Saraburi. Announced at a time of severe economic
difficulty, these ideas turned many government officers against him.

At war's end, Phibun was put on trial at Allied insistence on charges of
having committed war crimes, mainly that of collaborating with the Axis powers.
However, he was acquitted amid intense public pressure. Public opinion was still
favourable to Phibun, as he was thought to have done his best to protect Thai
interests, specifically using alliance with Japan to support the expansion of Thai
territory in Malaya and Burma.

Cold War period
Allied occupation of Thailand (1946)

Gurkhas guide disarmed Japanese soldiers from Bangkok to prisoner of war camps
outside the city, September 1945

After Japan's defeat in 1945, British, Indian troops, and US observers landed
in September, and during their brief occupation of parts of the country disarmed the
Japanese troops. After repatriating them, the British left in March 1946. US support
for Thailand blunted Allied demands, although the British demanded reparations in
the form of rice sent to Malaya, and the French the return of territories lost in
the Franco-Thai War. In exchange for supporting Thailand's admission to the United
Nations, the Soviet Union demanded the repeal of the anti-communist legislation.
Former British POWs erected a monument expressing gratitude to the citizens
of Ubon Ratchathani for their kindnesses.

In early September the leading elements of Major General Geoffrey Charles
Evans's Indian 7th Infantry Division landed, accompanied by Edwina Mountbatten.
Later that month Seni Pramoj returned from Washington to succeed Tawee as prime

44

minister. It was the first time in over a decade that the government had been
controlled by civilians. But the ensuing factional scramble for power in late 1945
created political divisions in the ranks of the civilian leaders that destroyed their
potential for making a common stand against the resurgent political force of the
military in the post-war years.

Following the signature by Thailand of the Washington Accord of 1946, the
territories that had been annexed after the Franco-Thai War, which
included Phibunsongkhram Province, Nakhon Champassak Province, Phra Tabong
Province, Koh Kong Province and Lan Chang Province, were returned to Cambodia
and Laos.

Moreover, the post-war accommodations with the Allies weakened the
civilian government. As a result of the contributions made to the Allied war effort by
the Free Thai Movement, the United States, which unlike the other Allies had never
officially been at war with Thailand, refrained from dealing with Thailand as an
enemy country in post-war peace negotiations. Before signing a peace treaty,
however, Britain demanded war reparations in the form of rice shipments to Malaya.
An Anglo-Thai Peace Treaty was signed on 1 January 1946, and an Australian–Thai
Peace Treaty on 3 April. France refused to permit admission of Thailand to
the United Nations until Indochinese territories annexed during the war were
returned. The Soviet Union insisted on the repeal of anti-communist legislation.

Democratic elections and the return of the military

King Bhumibol at his coronation at the Grand Palace

45

Elections were held in January 1946. These were the first elections in
which political parties were legal, and Pridi's People's Party and its allies won a
majority. In March 1946 Pridi became Siam's first democratically elected prime
minister. In 1946, after he agreed to hand back the Indochinese territories occupied
in 1941 as the price for admission to the United Nations, all wartime claims against
Siam were dropped and substantial US aid was received.

In December 1945, the young king Ananda Mahidol had returned to Siam
from Europe, but in June 1946 he was found shot dead in his bed, under mysterious
circumstances. Three palace servants were tried and executed for his murder,
although there are significant doubts as to their guilt and the case remains both
murky and a highly sensitive topic in Thailand today. The king was succeeded by his
younger brother, Bhumibol Adulyadej. In August Pridi was forced to resign amid
suspicion that he had been involved in the regicide. Without his leadership, the
civilian government foundered, and in November 1947 the army, its confidence
restored after the debacle of 1945, seized power. After an interim Khuang-headed
government, in April 1948 the army brought Phibun back from exile and made him
prime minister. Pridi, in turn, was driven into exile, eventually settling in Beijing as a
guest of the PRC.

Thai Triumvirate, 1947–1957

Field Marshal
Plaek Phibunsongkhram

46

Field Marshal
Sarit Thanarat

Police Gen.
Phao Siyanon
Phibun's return to power coincided with the onset of the Cold War and the
establishment of a communist regime in North Vietnam. He soon won the support of
the United Nations. Once again political opponents were arrested and tried, and
some were executed. During this time, several of the key figures in the wartime Free
Thai underground, including Thawin Udom, Thawi Thawethikul, Chan Bunnak, and
Tiang Sirikhanth, were eliminated in extra-legal fashion by the Thai police, run by
Phibun's ruthless associate Phao Sriyanond. There were attempted counter-coups by
Pridi supporters in 1948, 1949, and 1951, the second leading to heavy fighting
between the army and navy before Phibun emerged victorious. In the navy's 1951
attempt, popularly known as the Manhattan Coup, Phibun was nearly killed when
the ship where he was held hostage was bombed by the pro-government air force.
Although nominally a constitutional monarchy, Thailand was ruled by a
series of military governments, most prominently led by Phibun, interspersed with
brief periods of democracy. Thailand took part in the Korean War. Communist Party
of Thailand guerrilla forces operated inside the country from the early-1960s to 1987.