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Web References |
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Thailand News
News stories concerning Thailand from a variety of sources.
Wikipedia - Thailand
Excellent online encyclopedia entry about Thailand. Click on the "Main Article" links in each section to access more detailed information.
CIA World Factbook - Thailand
Updated statistics concerning Thailand. Excellent map.
Trek Into Oblivion
A 1976 account of a journey into the mountainous region of northern Thailand where the hill people live much as they did centuries ago, beyond the reach of modern governments. See also Hangin' with the Hill Tribes
in Northern Thailand" for a more recent account which shows the region more opened up to tourism.
Thailand Life
A site that started as a student project and has grown into an intimate tour of Thailand life, with many stories, photographs and links.
TourismThailand.org
The official website of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. This site features up-to-date news of upcoming festivals, Travel Tips, and a province-by-province destination guide.
ThaiWorldView
"180 pages - 1000 pictures about Thailand". Also, be sure to click on their "Favorite Links" link.
Chiangmai & Chiangrae
This site has an excellent history section with nicely illustrated articles. The 29 "Ayutthaya" articles continue beyond the destruction of Ayutthaya through the reign of Rama V in the early twentieth century. The "Post Haste" article is of particular interest to stamp collectors.
Phuket Guide - History
Phuket is a province in southern Thailand. Situated on an island in the Andaman Sea, it is a popular tourist destination served by an international airport. Phuket was affected by the tsunami which struck southeast Asia in December, 2004, but is now largely recovered.
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Thailand: The Country |
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(Thanks to Wikipedia.org, who has placed this map in the public domain). |
Thailand's oldest known village, Ban Chaing, was only discovered in the 1960s when buried pottery at the site made their way to the surface. Excavations made in the mid-1970s revealed a bronze spear point, as well as bronze anklets and bracelets, a major surprise because bronze artifacts had never been found in a village setting before. Rice grains were also found, indicating that Ban Chaing was an agricultural community. Much more pottery were also unearthed, replicas of which can be purchased today in shops near the museum that has been built close to the site. Some items dated back to as early as 3600 B.C.
Throughout Thailand's early history, up until near the end of the thirteenth century, inhabitants were mainly governed by small villages which were influenced by a number of nearby civilizations. One of these civilizations was the Mon kingdom, centered to the northeast in modern-day Myanmar (Burma). It was through these people that Buddhism came to Thailand from Myanmar's eastern neighbor, India. About 95% of Thais are now Buddhists. Other influential civilizations were the Khmer, centered in modern-day Cambodia, and the Malay civilization, which spread from Sumatra (Indonesia) and Malaysia to the south. The Malay civilization was the area's dominant trader on the Spice Route and served to reinforce the introduction of Buddhism to Thailand, and later also to introduce Islam to southern Thailand where it is a strong minority religion.
None of these groups of people would ever dominate Thailand, however. That distinction would fall upon a group that settled in southwest China, primarily in China's present-day Yunnan province which is to the northeast of Thailand, bordering Laos and Viet Nam. That was about 200 B.C. These people eventually formed the kingdom of Nan Chao in China after the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 A.D. Considerable migration into Laos, Thailand and Burma occurred in the centuries that followed, then a mass migration occurred in 1253 A.D. when Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, conquered the region for the Yuan dynasty.
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Stamps of Thailand |
 It's easy to overlook these Straits Settlement stamps that were overprinted "B" when assembling a Thailand stamp collection. These were issued by Great Britain for use within Thailand between 1882 and July, 1885, when the country joined the Universal Postal Union and issued her own stamps. A total of 22 stamps were issued. They're listed in the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue under "Bangkok."
 Buddhism is a common theme on Thailand's stamp. Depicted on this 1957 issue is a deer in front of a Dharmachkra wheel. The eight spokes of the wheel represent the eight paths to enlightenment, and the deer is a reference to Deer Park, Sarnath, where Buddha gave his first teaching.
 This stamp, issued for 1970's International Eductation Year, depicts one of the heroes of Thai history, King Ramkhamkaeng, teaching. The king began his 40-year reign in 1278 as ruler of the old Sukhothai kingdom. The period is regarded as a Camelot era when Thailand was set on a path of goodness and enlightenment. The king was very interested in learning, inventing the Thai alphabet and bringing experts into Thailand to teach. The year after this stamp was released, Thailand established its first open-enrollment university to meet a great demand from students to receive a higher education inside Thailand. It was named Ramkhamhaeng University.
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New Stamp Issues |
Issued in June, 2005, this stamp pictures a Buddhist votive sculpture, thought to ward off evil. The stamp is part of a set of five. Click This Link for an informative page about a wide range of art from many different periods in Thailand's history.
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Books |
Thailand: A Short History
by David Wyatt
The standard history of Thailand in an expanded edition revised in 2003
Travelers' Tales Thailand: True Stories
edited by James O'Reilly and Larry Habegger
Essays about many facets of Thailand from many different writers.
Monsoon Country
by Pira Sudham
Literary novel, written in English, brings direct insight into Thai life. This novel led to a Nobel Prize nomination for the author in 1990.
The English Governess at the Siamese Court
by Anna Leonowens
First published in 1870, this memoir spawned the movies The King and I and Anna and the King. This book, as well as the movies, are banned in Thailand. (Amazon's readers' reviews explain why.)
Kingdom of Make-Believe: A Novel of Thailand
by Dean Barrett
The theme of this novel is a touch more serious than most of Barrett's other fiction, which includes such potboiler mysteries as Murder at the Horny Toad Bar and Skytrain to Murder.
Pattaya 24/7
by Christopher G. Moore
This is a hardboiled detective novel in the mold of Mickey Spillane set in Thailand's resort city of Pattaya.
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