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Thailand, Thai Culture
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History and
Culture of Thailand
The history of Thailand begins with the migration of
the Thais into what is now Thailand during the first
millennium. Prior to this, bronze and iron age civilizations had
existed for several thousand years, plus later Mon, Malay and
Khmer kingdoms. The Thais established their own kingdoms,
most prominently a brief flowering at Sukhothai and
more lastingly the Ayutthaya kingdom. These kingdoms
were under constant threat from Burma and Vietnam, as well as from
Thai and Lao rivals. The European colonial powers threatened in the
19th and early 20th centuries, but Thailand survived as the only
south-east Asian state to avoid colonial rule. After
the end of the absolute Thai monarchy in 1932, Thailand endured sixty
years of almost permanent military rule before the establishment of a
democratic system.
Prehistory
The earliest major archaeological site in Thailand is Ban Chiang;
dating of artifacts from this site is controversial, but there is a
consensus that at least by 3600 BC, the inhabitants had developed
bronze tools and had begun to cultivate wet rice, providing the
impetus for social and political organization.
Later, Malay, Mon, and Khmer civilizations flourished in the region
prior to the domination of the Thais, most notably the kingdom of
Srivijaya in the south, the Dvaravati kingdom in central Thailand and
the Khmer empire based at Angkor. The Thais are
related linguistically to groups originating in southern China.
Migrations from southern China to Southeast Asia took place primarily
during the first millennium AD, most likely via northern Laos.
Sukhothai and Lannathai
Thais date the founding of their nation to the 13th century. According
to tradition, Thai chieftains overthrew their Khmer overlords at
Sukhothai in 1238 and established a Thai kingdom. The city briefly
dominated the area of modern Thailand under King Ramkhamhaeng, but
after his death it fell into decline and became subject to the
Ayutthaya kingdom in 1365.
Many other Thai statelets coexisted with Sukhothai, most notably the
northern kingdom of Lannathai. This state emerged in the same period
as Sukhothai, but survived longer. Its independent history ended in
1558, when it fell to the Burmese; thereafter it was dominated by
Burma and Ayutthaya in turn before falling to the army of King Taksin
in 1775.
Ayutthaya
The first ruler of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, King Ramathibodi I, made
two important contributions to Thai history: the establishment and
promotion of
Theravada Buddhism
as the official religion - to differentiate his kingdom from the
neighboring Hindu
kingdom of Angkor - and the compilation of the Dharmashastra, a legal
code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The
Dharmashastra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th
century. Beginning with the Portuguese in the 16th century, Ayutthaya
had some contact with the West, but until the 1800s, its relations
with neighboring nations, as well as with India and
China, were of primary importance.
Bangkok Period
(1768-1932)
After more than 400 years of power, in 1767, the Kingdom of Ayutthaya
was brought down by invading Burmese armies, its capital burned, and
the territory split. General Taksin managed to reunite the Thai
kingdom from his new capital of Thonburi and declared himself king in
1769. However, Taksin allegedly became mad, and General Chakri
succeeded him in 1782 as Rama I, the first king of the Chakri dynasty.
In the same year he founded the new capital city at Bangkok, across
the Chao Phraya river from Thonburi. The heirs of Rama I became
increasingly concerned with the threat of European colonialism after
British victories in neighboring Burma in 1826.
The first Thai recognition of Western power in the region was the
Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United Kingdom in 1826. In 1833,
the United States began diplomatic exchanges with Siam, as Thailand
was called until 1939 (and again between 1945 and 1949). However, it
was during the later reigns of King Mongkut (Rama IV, 1851-1868), and
his son King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, 1868-1910), that Thailand
established firm rapprochement with Western powers. The Thais believe
that the diplomatic skills of these monarchs, combined with the
modernizing reforms of the Thai Government, made Siam
the only country in South and Southeast Asia to avoid
European colonization. This is reflected in the country’s modern name,
Prathet Thai (Thailand), used unofficially between 1939 and 1945 and
officially declared on May 11, 1949, in which prathet means "nation"
and thai means "free".
The Anglo-Siam Treaty of 1909 made the modern border between Siam and
British Malaya by securing the Thai authority on the provinces of
Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Satun, 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.
Military rule (1932-1973)
The Siamese coup d’état of 1932
transformed the Government of Thailand from an absolute to a
constitutional monarchy. King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) initially
accepted this change but later surrendered the throne to his ten-year
old nephew, Ananda Mahidol. Upon his abdication, King Prajadhipok said
that the duty of a ruler was to reign for the good of the whole
people, not for a select few. King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) died in
1946 under somewhat mysterious circumstances, the official version
being that he shot himself by accident while cleaning his gun. He was
succeeded by Bhumibol Adulyadej, the longest reigning king of
Thailand, and very popular with the Thais. Although nominally a
constitutional monarchy, Thailand was ruled by a series of military
governments (most prominently led by Luang Phibunsongkhram and Sarit
Dhanarajata) interspersed with brief periods of democracy. In 1992 the
last military ruler, Suchinda Kraprayoon, gave up power in the face of
massive popular protests, supported by the king. Since then, Thailand
has been a functioning democracy with constitutional changes of
government.
As with the rest of Southeast Asia, Thailand was forced to become an
ally of Japan by the Japanese military during World War II and even
declared war on the United States and United Kingdom on January 25,
1942. After Japan’s defeat in 1945, with the help of a group of Thais
known as the Saree Thai who were supported by the US, Thailand was
treated as a defeated country by the British and French, although
American support mitigated the Allied terms. In the post-war period
Thailand enjoyed close relations with the United States, which it saw
as a protector from the communist revolutions in neighboring
countries. Recently, Thailand also has been an active member in the
regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
In October 1973 enormous demonstrations
were held in Bangkok, demanding the end of military rule. General
Thanom Kittikachorn responded with force, and up to 70 demonstrators
were killed in the streets - something not seen in Thailand for many
years. This prompted Rama IX to make his first intervention into
politics by withdrawing his support for the military regime, and on
October 14, 1973 Thanom resigned and left the country.
The events of October 1973 amounted to a revolution in Thai politics.
For the first time the urban middle class, led by the students, had
defeated the combined forces of the old ruling class and the army, and
had gained the apparent blessing of the king for a transition to full
democracy, symbolized by a new constitution which provided for a fully
elected unicameral legislature.
Unfortunately Thailand had not yet produced a political class able to
make this bold new democracy function smoothly. The January 1975
elections failed to produce a stable party majority, and fresh
elections in April 1976 produced the same result. The veteran
politician Seni Pramoj and his brother Kukrit Pramoj alternated in
power, but were unable to carry out a coherent reform program. The
sharp increase in oil prices in 1974 led to recession and inflation,
weakening the government’s position. The democratic government’s most
popular move was to secure the withdrawal of American forces from
Thailand.
The wisdom of this move was soon questioned, however, when the
victorious communists took power in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in May
1975. The arrival of communist regimes on Thailand’s borders, the
abolition of the 600-year-old Lao monarchy, and the arrival of a flood
of refugees from Laos and Cambodia, turned public opinion in Thailand
back to the right, and conservatives did much better in the 1976
elections than they had done in 1975. The left wing of the student
movement did not accept this and continued to agitate for radical
change.
By late 1976 the political situation in Bangkok had become ominous.
Moderate middle class opinion had turned away from radicalism as the
students, with their base at Thammasat University, grew more militant.
The army and the right-wing parties fought back against the radicals
though paramilitary groups such as the Village Scouts. Matters came to
a head in October when Thanom Kittikachorn returned to Thailand to
enter a monastery. Violent student protests were met by equally
violent counter-protests. On 6 October 1976 the Thammasat student
uprising culminated when the army unleashed their paramilitaries, and
used the resultant orgy of violence, in which hundreds of students
were killed, to suspend the constitution and resume power, with the
apparent approval of the king.
The army installed an extremely conservative former judge, Thanin
Kraivichien, as prime minister, and carried out a sweeping purge of
the universities, the media and the civil service. Thousands of
students and other leftists fled Bangkok and joined the Communist
Party’s insurgent forces in the north and north-east, operating from
safe bases in Laos. The economy was also in serious difficulties. The
new regime proved as unstable as the democratic experiment had been.
In October 1977 the army dropped Thanin and General Kriangsak
Chomanand became prime minister, but he was overthrown in February
1980 by General Prem Tinsulanonda.
Prem TinsulanondaUnder Prem, Thai forces had to deal with the
situation resulting from the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. There
was another flood of refugees, and both Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge
forces periodically crossed into Thai territory, sparking clashes
along the borders. To strengthen the country’s security, Prem invited
the U.S. back to Thailand, and also forged a tacit alliance with
China. The Chinese government agreed to end support to Thaliand`s
communist movement; in return, the Thai authorities agreed to give
safe haven to the Khmer Rouge forces fleeing west following the
invasion of Cambodia. Revelations of the crimes of the defeated Khmer
Rouge also sharply reduced the appeal of communism to the Thai public.
In 1981 extreme right-wing officers tried to overthrow Prem’s
government, but were foiled when the king refused to accept their
coup. This episode raised the prestige of the monarchy still further,
and also enhanced Prem’s status as a relative moderate. A kind of
compromise was therefore reached. The insurgency ended and most of the
ex-student guerillas returned to Bangkok under an amnesty. The army
returned to its barracks, and yet another constitution promulgated,
creating an appointed Senate to balance the popularly elected National
Assembly. Elections were held in April 1983, giving Prem, now in the
guise of a civilian politician, a large majority in the legislature.
Prem was also the beneficiary of the accelerating economic revolution
which was sweeping South-East Asia. After the recession of the mid
1970s, economic growth took off. For the first time Thailand became a
significant industrial power, and manufactured goods such as computer
parts, textiles and footwear overtook rice, rubber and tin as
Thailand’s leading exports. With the end of the Indo-China wars and
the insurgency, tourism developed rapidly and became a major earner.
The urban population continued to grow rapidly, but overall population
growth began to decline, leading to a rise in living standards even in
rural areas, although the north-east continued to lag behind. While
Thailand did not grow as fast as the “Asian tigers” like Taiwan and
South Korea, it achieved sustained growth.
Prem held office for eight years, and remained personally popular, but
the revival of democratic politics inevitably led to a demand for a
more adventurous leader. In 1988 fresh elections brought former
General Chatichai Choonhavan to power. But Chatichai proved both
incompetent and corrupt. By allowing one faction of the military to
get rich on government contracts, he provoked a rival faction, led by
Generals Sunthorn Kongsompong and Suchinda Kraprayoon, to stage a coup
in February 1991. The military brought in a civilian prime minister,
Anand Panyarachun, who was still responsible to the military in the
form of the National Peacekeeping Council with General Sunthorn as
chairman. Anand’s anti-corruption measures proved popular, but in
March 1992 the military strongman General Suchinda, stepped in and
took power himself, breaking a promise he had make to the king.
But the Thailand of 1992 was not the Siam of 1932. Suchinda’s coup
brought hundreds of thousands of people out in the largest
demonstrations ever seen in Bangkok, led by the former governor of
Bangkok, Chamlong Srimuang. Suchinda brought military units personally
loyal to him into the city and tried to suppress the demonstrations by
force, leading to a hideous massacre in the heart of the city in which
hundreds died. The navy mutinued in protest, and the country seemed on
the verge of civil war. In May the king intervened. In a televised
confrontation, he reprimanded Suchinda, who promptly resigned. The
prestige of Rama IX was thus even further heightened, and the king was
elevated to his current semi-divine status among the mass of the Thai
people.
Chuan LeekpaiThe king re-appointed Anand Panyarachun as prime minister
until elections could be held in September, which brought the
Democratic Party under Chuan Leekpai to power, mainly representing the
liberal voters of Bangkok. Chuan was a competent administrator who
held power until 1995, when he was defeated at elections by a
coalition of conservative and provincial parties led by Banharn
Silpa-acha. Banharn’s government was derailed by the 1997 Asian
economic crisis. As first the currency and then the economy collapsed,
Banharn’s government fell and was succeeded by one led by Chawalit
Yongchaiyudh.
Chawalit’s attempts to deal with the crisis were ineffectual, and in
November Chuan returned to power. Chuan came to an agreement with the
International Monetary Fund which stabilized the currency and allowed
the economy to begin to recover. What was remarkable about these
events was that they did not lead to a military coup, as a crisis of
this dimension would certainly have done in earlier years. The events
of 1992 seemed to have cured the military of its taste for direct
power, and also to have pursuaded the king that the only way to solve
Thailand’s problems was through the processes of democratic politics,
no matter how unsatisfactory these might be.
Instead of a coup Thailand experienced the formation of a mass
populist party, Thai Rak Thai ("Thais Love Thais") led by a mobile
phone millionaire, Thaksin Shinawatra. Chuan’s second government was
as competent as his first, and Chuan deserved great credit for the
rescue of the Thai economy, but he was no match for Thaksin’s
demogogic appeal to the mass electorate. Thaksin campaigned
effectively against the old politics, and also against corruption
(despite being himself far from above suspicion in this respect), and
in January 2001 he had a sweeping victory at the polls, winning a
larger popular mandate than any Thai prime minister has ever had in a
freely elected National Assembly.
In power, Thaksin had the good fortune to preside over the rapid
recovery of the Thai economy, for which he naturally claimed credit.
By 2002 Thailand, or at least Bangkok, was once again booming. As
low-end manufacturing moved to China and other low-wage economies,
Thailand moved upscale into more sophisticated manufacturing, both for
a rapidly expanding domestic middle class market and for export.
Tourism, and particularly sex tourism, also remained a huge revenue
earner. As the AIDS epidemic became more threatening, Thaksin made
some effort to crack down on Bangkok’s burgeoning sex industry, but
the power of the economic vested interests were too powerful even for
him.
Thus by 2004 Thai democracy and prosperity seemed firmly established,
but the dominance of Thaksin, whose rule was highly personalized and in
some ways authoritarian, was seen by many as an unhealthy development.
Thailand’s stability depends to a large extent on the personal
authority of the king, who turned 78 in December 2005 and is not in
good health. The heir to the throne, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn,
has little of his father’s popularity. The real test for Thai
democracy will come when Thaksin’s dominance in challenged and Rama IX
is no longer present to arbitrate political conflict.
Thai Culture
The Culture of Thailand is heavily influenced by
Buddhism.
Arts
Thai visual art was traditionally primarily Buddhist.
Thai Buddha images from different periods have a number of distinctive
styles. Contemporary
Thai art often combines
traditional Thai elements with modern techniques.
Literature in Thailand is heavily influenced by Indian culture. The
most notable works of Thai literature are a version of the
Ramayana called the Ramakien, written in
part by Kings Rama I and Rama II, and the poetry of Sunthorn Phu.
There is no tradition of spoken drama in Thailand, the role instead
being filled by Thai dance. This is divided into three categories-
khon, lakhon and likay- khon being the most elaborate and likay the
most populist. Nang drama, a form of shadow play, is found in the
south.
The music of Thailand includes classical and folk music traditions as
well as string or pop music.
Cuisine
Thai cuisine is world famous for its delicious unique taste. Many of
its dishes are very spicy. Some of the most popular Thai dishes
include sea food, curry, and rice noodle dishes. Thai cuisine is famous for the blending of four
fundamental tastes:
sweet (sugar, fruits, sweet peppers)
spicy hot (chilies)
sour (vinegar, lime juice, tamarind)
salty (soy sauce, fish sauce)
Most of the dishes in Thai cuisine
try to combine most, if not all, of these tastes. It is accomplished
by using a host of herbs, spices and fruit, including: chili, cumin,
garlic, ginger, basil, sweet basil, lime, lemongrass, coriander,
pepper, turmeric and shallots.
Sport
Muay Thai (Thai boxing) is probably the most
popular spectator sport in Thailand. The other main indigenous sport
is takraw, which is similar to volleyball, but played with the feet
and a light rattan ball. There are several version of the game with
differing rules. Professional football in Thailand is in its infancy,
although the English Premiership has a large following.
Customs
One of the most distinctive Thai
customs is the wai. This gesture of greeting, farewell or
acknowledgment comes in several forms, reflecting the relative status
of those involved, but generally it involves a prayer-like gesture
with the hands and a bow of the head.
Physical demonstrations of affection in public are common between
friends, but less so between lovers. It is thus common to see friends
walking together holding hands, but couples rarely do so except in
westernized areas.
A notable social norm holds that touching someone on the head may be
considered rude. It is also considered rude to place one’s feet at a
level above someone else’s head, especially if that person is of
higher social standing. This is because the Thai people consider the
foot to be the dirtiest and lowest part of the body, and the head the
most respected and highest part of the body. This also influences how
Thais sit when on the ground -- their feet always pointing away from
others, tucked to the side or behind them.
It is also considered extremely rude to step on a Thai coin, because
the king’s head is on the coin.
It is also customary for one to take off one’s footwear before
entering a home or a temple, and not to step on the
threshold.
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