The
Kingdom of Thailand ( ;
Ratcha Anachak
Thai, ) is an independent country that lies in the heart of
Southeast Asia.
It is
bordered to the north by Laos
and Myanmar
, to the east
by Laos and Cambodia
, to the
south by the Gulf of
Thailand
and Malaysia
, and to the
west by the Andaman
Sea
and Myanmar. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam
in the
Gulf of
Thailand to the
southeast and Indonesia
and India
in the
Andaman
Sea to the southwest. The capital and
largest city of Thailand is Bangkok
. It
is also the country's center of political, commercial, industrial
and cultural activities.
Thailand
is the world's 50th
largest country in terms of total area (slightly smaller than
Yemen
and slightly larger than Spain
), with a
surface area of approximately 513,000 km2 (198,000
sq mi), and the 21st
most-populous country, with approximately 64 million
people. About 75% of the population is ethnically
Thai, 14% is of
Chinese origin, and 3% is ethnically
Malay; the rest belong to minority groups
including
Mons,
Khmers and various
hill tribes. There are approximately
2.2 million legal and illegal migrants in Thailand. Thailand has
also attracted a small number of
expatriates from developed countries. The
country's official language is
Thai.
Thailand is one of the most devoutly
Buddhist countries in the world. The national
religion is
Theravada Buddhism which is practiced by more than 94.7% of
all Thais.
Muslims make up 4.6% of the
population and 0.7% belong to other religions.
Culture and traditions
in Thailand are significantly influenced by India, as are
Burma
, Laos and Cambodia.
Thailand is a
constitutional
monarchy with King
Bhumibol
Adulyadej, the
ninth
king of the
House of Chakri, as
the ruling monarch. The king has reigned for more than sixty-three
years, making him the longest reigning
Thai monarch and the longest reigning
current monarch in the world. The king is officially titled as the
Head of State, the Head of the Armed Forces, an Upholder of the
Buddhist religion, and the Defender of all faiths.
Thailand
experienced rapid economic growth between 1985 and 1995 and today
is a newly industrialized
country with an emphasis on exports and a flourishing tourism industry, thanks to various
world-famous tourist
destinations such as Pattaya
, Bangkok, and
Phuket
.
Etymology
The Country's official name was
Siam ( , ) until
June 23, 1939, when it was changed to Thailand. It was renamed Siam
from 1945 to May 11, 1949, after which it was again renamed
Thailand. Also spelled
Siem,
Syâm or
Syâma, it has been identified with the
Sanskrit Śyâma (
श्याम,
meaning "dark" or "brown"). The names
Shan and
A-hom seem to be variants of the same word, and Śyâma is possibly
not its origin but a learned and artificial distortion.
The word
Thai (
ไทย) is not, as commonly
believed, derived from the word
Tai (
ไท) meaning "freedom" in the
Thai language; it is, however, the
name of an
ethnic group from the
central plains (the
Thai people). A
famous Thai scholar argued that Tai (ไท) simply means "people" or
"human being" since his investigation shows that in some rural
areas the word "Tai" was used instead of the usual Thai word "khon"
(
คน) for people. The phrase
"Land of the free" is derived from Thai pride in the fact that
Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia never colonized by a
European power.
The
Thai National Anthem ( )
refers to the Thai nation as: prathet-thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย). The
first line of the national anthem is: prathet thai ruam lueat neua
chat chuea thai (Thai: ประเทศไทยรวมเลือดเนื้อชาติเชื้อไทย) and was
translated in 1939 by Colonel Luang Saranuprabhandi as: “Thailand
is the unity of Thai blood and body.”
While the Thai people will often refer to their country using the
polite form prathet-thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย), they most commonly use
the more colloquial word 'Mueang-Thai' (Thai: เมืองไทย) or simply
Thai (Thai:ไทย); the word mueang (Thai: เมือง) meaning nation but
most commonly used to refer to a city or town.
Ratcha Anachak Thai ( ) means "Kingdom of Thailand" or
"Kingdom of Thai". Etymologically, its components are:
-Ratcha- (from Sanskrit
raja,
meaning "king, royal, realm") ;
-ana- (from
Pāli , "authority, command, power",
itself from Sanskrit , same meaning)
-chak (from Sanskrit
cakra or
cakraṃ meaning "wheel", a symbol of
power and rule).
History
The region known as Thailand has been inhabited by humans since the
Paleolithic period, about 10,000 years
ago. Before the fall of the
Khmer
Empire in the 13th century, various states thrived there, such
as the various
Tai,
Mon,
Khmer
and
Malay kingdoms, as seen
through the numerous
archaeological
sites and artifacts that are scattered throughout the Siamese
landscape. Prior to the 12th century however, the first
Thai or Siamese state is traditionally
considered to be the Buddhist kingdom of
Sukhothai, which was founded in
1238.
Following the decline and fall of the Khmer empire in the 13th–14th
century, the Buddhist
Tai kingdoms of Sukhothai,
Lanna and Lan Chang were on the ascension.
However, a century later, Sukhothai's power was overshadowed by the
new
kingdom of Ayutthaya,
established in the mid-14th century in the lower
Chao Phraya River, or
Menam area. Ayutthaya's expansion centered along the
Menam while in the northern valley Lanna Kingdom and other small
Tai city-states ruled the area.
Thailand retained a tradition of trade with its neighboring states,
from China to India, Persia and Arab lands. Ayutthaya became one of
the most vibrant trading centers in Asia. European traders arrived
in the 16th century, beginning with the
Portuguese, followed by the French, Dutch
and English.
After the
fall of the Ayutthaya in 1767 to
the Burmese, King
Taksin the Great moved the capital of
Thailand to Thonburi
for approximately 15 years. The current
Rattanakosin era of Thai history began in 1782, following the
establishment of Bangkok as capital
of the Chakri dynasty under King
Rama I the Great. A quarter to a third
of the population of some areas of Thailand were
slaves.
Despite European pressure, Thailand is the only
Southeast Asian nation that has never been
colonized. Two main reasons for this were that Thailand had a long
succession of very able rulers in the 19th century, and that it was
able to exploit the rivalry and tension between the
French and the
British. As a result, the country remained a
buffer state between parts of
Southeast Asia that were colonized by the two
colonial powers.
this, Western influence led to many reforms in the 19th century and
major concessions, most notably being the loss of a large territory
on the east side of the
Mekong to the
French and the step-by-step
absorption by Britain of the Shan (
Thai
Yai) States (now in
Burma) and the
Malay Peninsula.
The losses initially
included Penang and Tumasik and eventually culminated in the loss
of four predominantly ethnic-Malay southern provinces, which later
became Malaysia's four northern states, under the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of
1909.
In 1932, a
bloodless
revolution carried out by a
small
group of military and civilian officials resulted in a
transition of power, when King
Prajadhipok was forced to grant the people of
Siam their first constitution, thereby ending centuries of
absolutist monarchy.
During
World War II, the Empire of
Japan
demanded the right to move troops across Thailand
to the Malayan frontier. Japan invaded the country and
engaged the Thai army for six to eight hours before
Plaek Pibulsonggram ordered an
armistice. Shortly thereafter Japan was granted free passage, and
on December 21, 1941, Thailand and Japan signed a military alliance
with a secret protocol wherein Tokyo agreed to help Thailand regain
territories lost to the British and French. Subsequently, Thailand
undertook to 'assist' Japan in its war against the Allies, while at
the same time maintaining an active anti-Japanese resistance
movement known as the
Seri Thai.
the war, Thailand emerged as an ally of the
United States
. As with many of the developing nations during the
Cold War, Thailand then went through
decades of political instability characterised by
coups d'état as one military regime
replaced another, but eventually progressed towards a stable
prosperity and
democracy in the
1980s.
In 1997, Thailand was hit by the
Asian financial crisis, and the Thai
baht for a short time peaked at 56 baht to the
US dollar compared to about 25 baht to the dollar before 1997.
Since then, the baht has regained most of its strength and as of
August 2009 is valued at 34.01 baht to the
US
dollar.
The
official calendar in
Thailand is based on the Eastern version of the
Buddhist Era, which is 543 years ahead of
the
Gregorian calendar. For
example, the year AD 2009 is 2552 BE in Thailand.
Southern Violence
Malay Peninsula was once known as
Tanah Melayu (Malay Land).
It extends from Singapore to the Isthmus of
Kra
bordering Burma, Thailand and Malay Land.
Phuket is Bukit (hill) in Malay, "Satun" is
"Setol" (a tropical fruit) was the Province of "Kedah" under the
Malay Sultanate and Patani (Land of Farmers) was also part of the
Malay Sultanate. In these areas people once spoke both English as
well as
Sam-sam, a local version of the Siamese language.
The majority of residents were Muslims. Thailand pushed to dominate
the peninsula as far as Malacca in the 1400s and held much of the
peninsula for the next few centuries, including Tumasek (Singapore)
some of the Andaman Islands and a colony on Java, but eventually
failed when the British used force to guarantee their suzerainty
over the sultanate.
All the states of the Malay Sultanate presented annual gifts to the
Thai king in the form of a
golden flower,
which understood the gesture to be tribute and an acknowledgement
of vassalage. The British intervened in the Malay State and with
the
Anglo-Siamese
Treaty tried to build a railway from the south to Bangkok,
Thailand relinquished sovereignty over what are now the northern
Malay provinces of Kedah, Pelis, Kelantan and Terengganu to the
British. Satun and Pattani provinces were given to Thailand.
The Malay peninsula provinces were infiltrated by the Japanese
during World War II, and by the
Malayan Communist Party (CPM) from
1942 to 2008, when they decided to sue for peace with the Malaysian
and Thai governments after the CPM lost its support from Vietnam
and China subsequent to the
Cultural
Revolution.
Recent insurgent uprisings may be a continuation of separatist
fighting which started after World War II with Sukarno's support
for the
PULO, and the intensification since the
U.S. initiation of the
War on Terror
may be related. Most victims since the uprisings have been Buddhist
and Muslim bystanders.
Politics and government
History
Since the
political
reform of the
absolute
monarchy in 1932, Thailand has had
17 constitutions and charters.
Throughout this time, the form of government has ranged from
military dictatorship to electoral democracy, but all governments
have acknowledged a
hereditary
monarch as the head of state.
1997 to 2006
The 1997 Constitution was the first constitution to be drafted by
popularly elected Constitutional Drafting Assembly, and was
popularly called the "People's Constitution".
The 1997 Constitution created a
bicameral legislature consisting of a
500-seat House of Representatives (สภาผู้แทนราษฎร, sapha phutaen
ratsadon) and a 200-seat
Senate (วุฒิสภา,
wuthisapha). For the first time in Thai history, both houses were
directly
elected. Many
human rights are explicitly acknowledged, and
measures were established to increase the stability of elected
governments. The House was elected by the first-past-the-post
system, where only one candidate with a simple majority could be
elected in one constituency. The Senate was elected based on the
province system, where one province can return more than one
senator depending on its population size. Members of the House of
Representatives served four-year terms, while senators served
six-year terms. The 1997 People's Constitution also promoted human
rights more than any other constitutions.
The court system (ศาล, saan) included a
constitutional court with
jurisdiction over the constitutionality of parliamentary acts,
royal decrees, and political matters.
The
January 2001
general election, the first election under the 1997
Constitution, was called the most open, corruption-free election in
Thai history. The subsequent government was the first in Thai
history to complete a 4-year term. The
2005 election had the
highest voter turnout in Thai history.. Despite efforts to clean up
the system, vote buying and electoral violence remained problems of
electoral quality in 2005. The PollWatch Foundation, Thailand's
most prominent election watchdog, declared that vote buying in this
election, specifically in the North and the Northeast, was more
serious than in the 2001 election. The organization also accused
the government of violating the election law by abusing state power
in presenting new projects in a bid to seek votes.
2006 coup d'état
Without meeting much resistance, a
military junta overthrew the interim government of
Thaksin Shinawatra on 19
September 2006. The
junta
abrogated the constitution, dissolved
Parliament and the Constitutional Court, detained and later removed
several members of the government, declared
martial law, and appointed one of the king's
Privy Counselors, General
Surayud
Chulanont, as the Prime Minister. The junta later wrote a
highly abbreviated
interim constitution
and appointed a panel to draft a
permanent constitution. The
junta also appointed a 250-member legislature, called by some
critics a "chamber of generals" while others claimed that it lacks
representatives from the poor majority. In this interim
constitution draft, the head of the junta was allowed to remove the
prime minister at any time. The legislature was not allowed to hold
a vote of confidence against the cabinet and the public was not
allowed to file comments on bills. This interim constitution was
later surpassed by
the
permanent constitution on 24 August 2007.
Martial law was partially revoked in January 2007. The ban on
political activities was lifted in July 2007, following the
30 May
dissolution of the
Thai Rak Thai
party. The
new
constitution has been approved by a referendum on 19 August,
which led to a return to
democratic elections on 23 December
2007.
Political Crisis
200px-Police_"response"_to_PAD_Protest.jpg"
style='width:200px' alt="" />
The
People's Power
Party , led by
Samak Sundaravej
formed a government with five smaller parties. Following several
court rulings against him in a variety of scandals, and surviving a
vote of no confidence, and protesters blockading government
buildings and airports, in September 2008, Sundaravej was found
guilty of conflict of interest by the
Constitutional Court of
Thailand (due to being a host in cooking TV program), and thus,
ended his term in office. He was replaced by PPP member
Somchai Wongsawat. As of October 2008,
Wongsawat was unable to gain access to his offices, which were
occupied by protesters from the
People's Alliance for
Democracy. On December 2, 2008, Thailand's Constitutional Court
found the ruling Peoples Power Party guilty of electoral fraud,
which led to the dissolution of the party according to the law.
After defections from smaller parties the opposition
Democrats Party was able to form a
government, a first for the party since 2001. The leader of the
Democrat party, and former leader of the opposition,
Abhisit Vejjajiva was appointed and
sworn-in as the 27th
Prime
Minister, together with the new cabinet on 17 December
2008.
Thailand remains an active member of the regional
Association of
South-East Asian Nations.
Military
The
Royal Thai Armed
Forces ( is the name of the military of the Kingdom of Thailand
. It consists of the following branches:
Today the Royal Thai Armed Forces comprises about 1,025,640
personnel. The
Head of the Thai
Armed Forces (จอมทัพไทย:
Chomthap Thai) is His Majesty
King Bhumibol Adulyadej
(Rama IX), however this position is only nominal. The Armed Forces
is managed by the
Ministry of Defence of
Thailand, which is headed by the Minister of Defence (a member
of the
Cabinet of Thailand) and
commanded by the
Royal Thai Armed Forces
Headquarters, which in turn is headed by the
Chief
of Defence Forces of Thailand.
According to the
Constitution of the Kingdom,
serving in the Armed Forces is a duty of all Thai citizens. However
only males over the age of 21, who have not gone through reserve
training are subjected to a random draft. Those chosen randomly are
subjected to twenty-four months fulltime service, while volunteers
are subjected to eighteen months service, depending on their
education.
The
Royal Thai Armed Forces
Day is celebrated on
January 18th to
commemorate the victory of King
Naresuan the Great in battle against the
Crown Prince of
Burma in 1593.
Education
Primary school students in
Thailand
Thailand enjoys a high level of literacy, and education is provided
by a well-organized school system of kindergartens, primary, lower
secondary and upper secondary schools, numerous vocational
colleges, and universities. The private sector of education is well
developed and significantly contributes to the overall provision of
education which the government would not be able to meet through
the public establishments.Education is compulsory up to and
including grade 9, and the government provides free education
through to grade 12.
Thailand has never been colonized, and its teaching relies heavily
on rote rather than on student-centred methodology. Education in a
modern sense is therefore relatively recent and still needs to
overcome some major cultural hurdles to ensure further development
and improvement to its standards.
The establishment of reliable and coherent curricula for its
primary and secondary schools is subject to such rapid changes that
schools and their teachers are not always sure what they are
supposed to be teaching, and authors and publishers of textbooks
are unable to write and print new editions quickly enough to keep
up with the volatile situation.
issue concerning university entrance has therefore also been in
constant upheaval for a number of years. Nevertheless, education
has seen its greatest progress in the years since 2001. Most of the
present generation of students are computer literate, and knowledge
of English is on the increase at least in quantity if not in
quality.
There has been concern in recent years regarding the low IQ scores
of many Thai youth. A study in the
Nation
newspaper reported that the "Department of Health and the
Department of Mental Health will (make) an effort to combat low
intelligence, after it found the average IQ level among many youths
was lower than 80." In 2006, the Vice Minister for Education
Watchara Phanchet reported that "the average intelligence quotient
(IQ) of Thai children, somewhere between 87 and 88 points, remains
in the "low average" category when ranked internationally. Further,
with the exception of the well-educated wealthy class, the level of
English speaking remains quite low.
Administrative divisions
Thailand is divided into 75
provinces (จังหวัด, changwat), which
are gathered into 5 groups of provinces by location.
There are also 2
special governed districts: the capital
Bangkok (Krung Thep Maha Nakhon) and Pattaya, of which Bangkok is at provincial level and thus
often counted as a 76th province.
Each province is divided into
districts and
the districts are further divided into sub-districts (tambons). As
of 2006 there are 877 districts (อำเภอ, amphoe) and the 50
districts of Bangkok (เขต, khet).
Some
parts of the provinces bordering Bangkok are also referred to as
Greater
Bangkok
(ปริมณฑล, pari monthon). These provinces
include Nonthaburi
, Pathum Thani
, Samut Prakan
, Nakhon Pathom
and Samut Sakhon
. The name of each province's capital city
(เมือง, mueang) is the same as that of the province. For example,
the capital of Chiang Mai province (
changwat Chiang Mai)
is
Mueang Chiang Mai or
Chiang Mai. The 76
provinces are as
follows:
Central
- Ang Thong
- Bangkok , Special Governed District of
- Chai Nat
- Kanchanaburi
- Lopburi
- Nakhon Nayok
- Nakhon Pathom
- Nonthaburi
- Pathum Thani
- Phetchaburi
- Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya
- Prachuap Khiri Khan
- Ratchaburi
- Samut Prakan
- Samut Sakhon
- Samut Songkhram
- Saraburi
- Sing Buri
- Suphan Buri
East
- Chachoengsao
- Chanthaburi
- Chonburi
- Prachinburi
- Rayong
- Sa Kaeo
- Trat
North
- Chiang Mai
- Chiang Rai
- Kamphaeng Phet
- Lampang
- Lamphun
- Mae Hong Son
- Nakhon Sawan
- Nan
- Phayao
- Phetchabun
- Phichit
- Phitsanulok
- Phrae
- Sukhothai
- Tak
- Uthai Thani
- Uttaradit
Northeast (Isan)
- Amnat Charoen
- Buri Ram
- Chaiyaphum
- Kalasin
- Khon Kaen
- Loei
- Maha Sarakham
- Mukdahan
- Nakhon Phanom
- Nakhon Ratchasima
- Nong Bua Lamphu
- Nong Khai
- Roi Et
- Sakon Nakhon
- Si Sa Ket
- Surin
- Ubon Ratchathani
- Udon Thani
- Yasothon
South
- Chumphon
- Krabi
- Nakhon Si Thammarat
- Narathiwat
- Pattani
- Phang Nga
- Phatthalung
- Phuket
- Ranong
- Satun
- Songkhla
- Surat Thani
- Trang
- Yala
Law enforcement in Thailand
Communications
- Telephone: Thailand has about 7,024,000 base telephones, and
about 51,377,000 numbers for GSM/3G
- Radio: AM 238 stations, FM 351 stations
- Television: 6 stations with 111 network stations. There are
about 15,190,000 cable subscribers.
- Satellite: 4 satellites
Geography
Promthep Cape in Phuket
Mountainous landscape of Northern
Thailand
Totaling , Thailand is the world's 50th largest country in land
mass, while it is the world's 20th largest country in terms of
population.
It is comparable in population to countries
such as France
and the
United
Kingdom
, and is similar in land size to France and
California in the United States; it is just over twice the size of
the entire United Kingdom, and 1.4 times the size of
Germany. The local
climate is
tropical and characterized by
monsoons.
There is a rainy, warm, and cloudy southwest monsoon from mid-May
to September, as well as a dry, cool northeast monsoon from
November to mid-March. The southern isthmus is always hot and
humid.
Thailand is home to several distinct geographic regions, partly
corresponding to the provincial groups.
The north of the
country is mountainous, with the highest point being Doi Inthanon
at 2,565 metres above sea level
(8,415 ft). The northeast, Isan
, consists
of the Khorat
Plateau
, bordered to the east by the Mekong River. The centre of the country is dominated
by the predominantly flat Chao Phraya
river valley, which runs into the Gulf of Thailand. The south consists of the narrow Kra Isthmus
that widens into the Malay Peninsula. Politically, there
are six geographical regions which differ from the others in
population, basic resources, natural features, and level of social
and economic development. The diversity of the regions is the most
pronounced attribute of Thailand's physical setting.
The
Chao Phraya and the
Mekong River are the sustainable resource of
rural Thailand. Industrial scale production of crops use both
rivers and their tributaries.
The Gulf of Thailand covers 320,000 km² and is fed by the Chao
Phraya, Mae Klong, Bang Pakong and Tapi Rivers. It contributes to the tourism
sector owing to its clear shallow waters along the coasts in the
Southern Region and the Kra Isthmus.
The Gulf of Thailand
is also an industrial center of Thailand with the kingdom's main
port in Sattahip
along with being the entry gates for Bangkok's Inland Seaport.
The
Andaman
Sea is regarded as Thailand's most precious natural
resource as it hosts the most popular and luxurious resorts in
Asia. Phuket, Krabi
, Ranong
, Phang
Nga
and Trang
and their lush islands all lay along the coasts of
the Andaman Sea and despite the 2004 Tsunami
, they continue to be and ever more so, the
playground of the rich and elite of Asia and
the world.
Plans
have resurfaced of a logistical connection of the two bodies of
water which would be coined the Thai Canal
, analogous to the Suez
and the
Panama
Canal
. Such an idea has been greeted with positive
accounts by Thai politicians as it would cut fees charged by the
Ports of
Singapore
, improve ties with China
and India, lower
shipping times and increase ship safety owing to pirate fears in
the Strait
of Melaka
and, support the Thai government's policy of being
the logistical hub for Southeast Asia. The ports would
improve economic conditions in the south of Thailand, which relies
heavily on tourism income, and it would also change the structure
of the Thai economy moving it closer to a services center of Asia.
The canal would be a major engineering project and has expected
costs of 20–30 billion dollars.
Economy
[[File:Bangkok skytrain
sunset.jpg|thumb|240px|Bangkok, the largest city and business and industrial
center of the country]]
Thailand is an
emerging economy and
considered as a
Newly
Industrialized Country. After enjoying the world's highest
growth rate from 1985 to 1996 – averaging 9.4% annually – increased
pressure on Thailand's currency, the
baht,
in 1997, the year in which the economy contracted by 1.9% led to a
crisis that uncovered financial sector weaknesses and forced the
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh
administration to float the currency, however, Prime Minister
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh was forced to resign after his cabinet came
under fire for its slow response to the crisis. The baht was pegged
at 25 to the
US dollar from 1978 to 1997,
however, the baht reached its lowest point of 56 to the US dollar
in January 1998 and the economy contracted by 10.8% that year. This
collapse prompted the
Asian
financial crisis.
Thailand's economy started to recover in 1999, expanding 4.2% and
4.4% in 2000, thanks largely to strong exports. Growth (2.2%) was
dampened by the softening of the global economy in 2001, but picked
up in the subsequent years owing to strong growth in Asia, a
relatively weak baht encouraging exports and increasing domestic
spending as a result of several mega projects and incentives of
Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra, known as
Thaksinomics. Growth in 2002, 2003 and 2004 was
5–7% annually. Growth in 2005, 2006 and 2007 hovered around 4–5%.
Due both to the weakening of the US dollar and an increasingly
strong Thai currency, by March 2008, the dollar was hovering around
the 33 baht mark.
Thailand exports an increasing value of over $105 billion worth of
goods and services annually.
CIA world factbook - Thailand Major exports
include
Thai rice,
textiles and footwear, fishery products, rubber, jewelry,
automobiles, computers and electrical appliances. Thailand is the
world’s no.1 exporter of rice, exporting more than 6.5 million tons
of milled rice annually. Rice is the most important crop in the
country. Thailand has the highest percentage of arable land,
27.25%, of any nation in the Greater Mekong Subregion. About 55% of
the available land area is used for rice production.
IRRI country profile
Substantial industries include electric appliances, components,
computer parts and automobiles, while
tourism in Thailand makes up about 6% of
the economy.
Prostitution in
Thailand and sex tourism also form a de facto part of the
economy. Cultural milieu combined with poverty and the lure of easy
money have caused
prostitution and sex
tourism in particular to flourish in Thailand. One estimate
published in 2003 placed the trade at
US$4.3 billion per year or about three
percent of the Thai economy.
According to research by Chulalongkorn University
on the Thai illegal economy, prostitution in
Thailand in the period between 1993 and 1995, made up around 2.7%
of the GDP. It is believed that
at least 10% of
tourist dollars are spent on the sex trade.
Thailand uses the metric system but traditional units of
measurement and imperial measure (feet, inches) are still much in
use, particularly for agriculture and building materials. Years are
numbered as B.E. (
Buddhist Era)
in education, the civil service, government, and on contracts and
newspaper datelines; in banking, however, and increasingly in
industry and commerce, standard Western year (Christian or Common
Era) counting prevails.
Demographics
Language
The
official language of Thailand is the Thai
language, a Kradai language
closely related to Lao, Shan in Burma, and numerous smaller languages
spoken in an arc from Hainan
and Yunnan
south to the Malaysian border. It is the
principal language of education and government and spoken
throughout the country. The standard is based on the dialect of the
central Thai people, and it is written in the
Thai alphabet, an
abugida script that evolved from the
Khmer script. Several other dialects exist, and
coincide with the regional designations.
Southern Thai is spoken in the
southern provinces, and
Northern
Thai is spoken in the provinces that were formally part of the
independent kingdom of
Lannathai.
Thailand is also host to several other minority languages, the
largest of which is the
Lao dialect of
Isan spoken in the northeastern
provinces. Although sometimes considered a Thai dialect, it is a
Lao dialect, and the region in where it is traditionally spoken was
historically part of the Lao kingdom of
Lan
Xang. In the far south,
Yawi, a
dialect of Malay, is the primary language of the Malay Muslims.
Chinese
dialects are also spoken by the large Chinese population, Teochew
being the dialect best represented.
Numerous tribal languages are also spoken, including those
belonging to the
Mon-Khmer family, such as
Mon,
Khmer,
Viet,
Mlabri;
Austronesian family, such as
Cham,
Moken, and
Orang Asli,
Sino-Tibetan family such as
Lawa,
Akhan, and
Karen; and other
Tai languages such as
Nyaw,
Phu
Thai, and
Saek.
Hmong is a member of the
Hmong-Mien languages, which is now
regarded as a language family of its own.
English is a mandatory school subject, but the number of fluent
speakers remains very low, especially outside the cities.
Religion
According to the last census (2000) 94.7% of the total population
are Buddhists of the
Theravada tradition.
Muslims are the second largest
religious group in Thailand at 4.6%.
Thailand's
southernmost provinces – Pattani
, Yala, Narathiwat
and part of Songkhla
Chumphon
have dominant Muslim populations, consisting of
both ethnic Thai and Malay. The southern tip of Thailand is
mostly ethnically
Malay, and
most Malays are
Sunni Muslims.
Christians represent 0.5% of the population. A
tiny but influential community of
Sikhs in Thailand and some
Hindus also live in the
country's cities, and are heavily engaged in retail commerce. There
is also a small
Jewish
community in Thailand, dating back to the 17th century. Since
2001, Muslim activists have rallied against the central government
because of alleged corruption and ethnic bias among
officials.
Culture
The culture of Thailand incorporates a great deal of influence from
India, China, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Thailand's
national religion
Theravada
Buddhism is central to modern Thai identity and belief. In
practice,
Thai Buddhism has
evolved over time to include many regional beliefs originating from
Hinduism, animism as well as ancestor worship. In areas in the
southernmost parts of Thailand,
Islam is
prevalent. Several different ethnic groups, many of which are
marginalized, populate Thailand.
Some of these groups overlap into
Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia and have mediated change between their traditional
local culture, national Thai and global cultural influences.
Overseas Chinese also form a
significant part of Thai society, particularly in and around
Bangkok. Their successful integration into Thai society has allowed
for this group to hold positions of economic and political
power.After
World War II, American
missionaries sought to win
Christian
converts in Thailand.
Harold Reeves,
for instance, in 1952 became the first missionary to Thailand sent
by the
Southern Baptist
Convention.
Like most Asian cultures, respect towards ancestors is an essential
part of Thai spiritual practice. Thais have a strong sense of
hospitality and generosity, but also a strong sense of social
hierarchy. Seniority is an important concept in Thai culture.
Elders have by tradition ruled in family decisions or ceremonies.
Older siblings have duties to younger ones.
The traditional Thai greeting, the
wai, is generally offered first by the
younger of the two people meeting, with their hands pressed
together, fingertips pointing upwards as the head is bowed to touch
their face to the hands, usually coinciding with the spoken word
"Sawasdee khrap" for male speakers, and "Sawasdee ka" for females.
The elder then is to respond afterwards in the same way. Social
status and position, such as in government, will also have an
influence on who performs the
wai first. For example, although one may
be considerably older than a provincial governor, when meeting it
is usually the visitor who pays respect first. When children leave
to go to school, they are taught to
wai to their parents
to represent their respect for them. They do the same when they
come back. The wai is a sign of respect and reverence for another,
similar to the
namaste greeting of India and
Nepal.
Muay Thai, or Thai boxing, is the national
sport in Thailand and its native
martial
art call "Muay". In the past "Muay" was taught to royal
soldiers for combat on battlefield if unarmed. After they retired
from the army, these soldiers often became Buddhist monks and
stayed at the temples. Most of the Thai people's lives are closely
tied to Buddhism and
temples; they often send
their sons to be educated with the monks. ”Muay” is also one of the
subjects taught in the temples.
Muay Thai achieved popularity all over the world in the 1990s.
Although similar martial arts styles exist in other
Southeast Asian countries, few enjoy the
recognition that Muay Thai has received with its full-contact rules
allowing strikes including elbows, throws and knees.
This is due to
Thailand's economic standing in the world while other nation such
as Cambodia, Laos and Burma are listed
as the world's Least Developed
Countries by the UN. Association football, however, has
possibly overtaken Muay Thai's position as most widely viewed and
liked sport in contemporary Thai society and it is not uncommon to
see Thais cheering their favourite English Premier League teams on
television and walking around in replica kits. Another widely
enjoyed pastime, and once a competitive sport, is
kite flying.
Taboos in Thailand include touching someone's head or pointing with
the feet, as the head is considered the most sacred and the foot
the dirtiest part of the body. Stepping over someone, or over food,
is considered insulting.Books and other documents are the most
revered of secular objects. One should not slide a book across a
table or place it on the floor.
Thai cuisine blends five
fundamental tastes: sweet, spicy, sour, bitter and salty. Some
common ingredients used in Thai cuisine include garlic, chillies,
lime juice, lemon grass, and fish sauce. The staple food in
Thailand is rice, particularly
jasmine
variety rice (also known as Hom Mali rice) which is included in
almost every meal. Thailand is the world's largest exporter of
rice, and Thais domestically consume over 100 kg of milled
rice per person per year.
IRRI country profile Thailand Over 5000 varieties of
rice from Thailand are preserved in the rice gene bank of the
International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI), based in the Philippines. The king
of Thailand is the official patron of IRRI.
Thai society has been influenced in recent years by its widely
available multi-language press and media. There are numerous
English, Thai and Chinese newspapers in circulation; most Thai
popular magazines use English headlines as a
chic glamor factor. Most large businesses in
Bangkok operate in English as well as other languages. Thailand is
the largest newspaper market in Southeast Asia with an estimated
circulation of at least 13 million copies daily in 2003. Even
upcountry, out of Bangkok, media flourishes. For example, according
to Thailand's Public Relations Department Media Directory
2003-2004, the nineteen provinces of northeast Thailand themselves
hosted 116 newspapers along with radio, TV and cable.
International rankings
Sports
Thai boxing
Muay Thai (Thai: มวยไทย, RTGS: Muai Thai,
, lit. "Thai Boxing") is a form of hard martial art practiced in
large parts of the world, including Thailand and other Southeast
Asian countries. The art is similar to others in Southeast Asia
such as: Pradal Serey in Cambodia, Lethwei in Burma, Tomoi in
Malaysia, and
Muay Lao in Laos. Muay Thai
has a long history in Thailand and is the country's national
sport.
Traditional
Muay Thai practiced today
varies significantly from the ancient art Muay Boran and uses
kicks, punches and knee and elbow strikes in a ring with gloves
similar to those used in Western boxing and this has led to
Thailand gaining medals at the Olympic Games in
Boxing.
Rugby
Rugby is also a growing sport in Thailand with the
Thailand national rugby union
team rising to be ranked 61st in the world. Thailand became the
first country in the world to host an international 80 kg
welterweight rugby tournament in 2005.
The national
domestic Thailand Rugby Union (TRU) competition includes several
universities and services teams such as Chulalongkorn University, Mahasarakham University
, Kasetsart University
, Prince of Songkla
University
, Thammasat
University, Rangsit University
, the Thai Police, the
Thai Army, the Thai
Navy and the Royal Thai Air
Force. Local sports clubs which also compete in the TRU
include the British Club of Bangkok, the
Southerners Sports Club
and the
Royal Bangkok Sports
Club.
Golf
Further information: Golf in
Thailand
Thailand has been called the Golf Capital of Asia as it is a
popular destination for golf. The country attracts a large number
of golfers from Japan, Korea, Singapore, South Africa and Western
countries who come to play golf in Thailand every year. The growing
popularity of golf, especially among the middle classes and expats,
is evident since there are more than 200 world-class golf courses
nationwide, and some of them are chosen to host PGA and LPGA
tournaments, such as
Amata
Spring Country Club,
Alpine Golf & Sports Club,
Thai Country Club and
Black Mountain Golf Club.
Other sports
Other sports in Thailand are slowly growing as the country develops
its sporting infrastructure. The success in sports like
weightlifting and
Taekwondo at the last two
Summer Olympic Games has demonstrated
that
boxing is no longer the only medal
chance for Thailand.
See also
References
External links
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