The Thailand Report: National Landscape, Current Challenges and Opportunities for Growth

• Main Authors: Institute for Societal Leadership, ELLINGTON, John W., CHEN, Serene
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Thailand; History; Culture; Development; Asian Studies; Growth and Development
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/isl_research/12; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=isl_research
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Thai migrants first began trickling into the Chao Phraya river valley from Southern China in the eleventh century. Thai chieftains established petty kingdoms in modern-day Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, initially as tributaries to more established Burmese and Khmer rulers. However, both the diminishing influence of the Khmer Empire and the Mongols’ sacking of the Burmese capital Bagan in 1287 left a political vacuum in mainland Southeast Asia, which was soon filled by Thai kingdoms such as Sukhothai (1238–1463), Chiang Mai (1296–1775), Ayutthaya (1351–1767) and eventually Bangkok (f. 1 782). In the process, the up-and-coming Thai polities supplanted the Khmer Empire as the dominant power on the mainland, but they also largely absorbed cultural cues from the sophisticated Mon and Khmer peoples, including their writing systems, legal codes, art forms, political and administrative structures and the Theravada Buddhist religion.