Thailand, formerly Siam, officially Kingdom of Thailand, kingdom in Southeast Asia, bounded by Burma (Myanmar) on the north and west, by Laos on the northeast, by Cambodia and the Gulf of Thailand (Siam) on the southeast, by Malaysia on the south, and by the Andaman Sea and Burma on the southwest. The total area of Thailand is 513,115 sq km (198,114 sq mi). The capital and largest city of Thailand is Bangkok.
Land and Resources Thailand lies within the Indochinese Peninsula, except for the southern extremity, which occupies a portion of the Malay Peninsula. The country's extreme dimensions are about 1770 km (about 1100 mi) from north to south and about 805 km (about 500 mi) from east to west. The physiography is highly diversified, but the mountain systems are the predominant feature of the terrain. A series of parallel ranges, with a north-south trend, occupy the northern and western portions of the country. Extreme elevations occur in the westernmost ranges, which extend along the Burmese frontier and rise to 2595 m (8514 ft) atop Doi Inthanon, the highest point in Thailand. The peninsular area, which is bordered by narrow coastal plains, reaches a high point of 1786 m (5860) atop Khao Luang. Another mountain system projects, in a northern and southern direction, through central Thailand. At its southern extremity, the system assumes an east-west trend and extends to the eastern frontier. Doi Pia Fai (1270 m/4167 ft) is its highest peak. The region to the north and east of this system consists largely of a low, barren plateau, called the Khorat Plateau. Making up about one-third of the country, the plateau is bordered by the Mekong River valley. Between the central and western mountains is a vast alluvial plain traversed by the Chao Phraya, the chief river of Thailand. This central plain, together with the fertile delta formed by the Chao Phraya near Bangkok, is the richest agricultural and most densely populated section of the kingdom.
Climate Thailand has a moist, tropical climate, influenced chiefly by monsoon winds that vary in direction according to the season. From April to October the winds are mainly from the southwest and are moisture laden; during the rest of the year they blow from the northeast. Temperatures are higher, ranging from 25.6° to 36.7° C (78° to 98° F), while the country is under the influence of the southwestern winds. During the remainder of the year the range is from 13.3° to 33.3° C (56° to 92° F). Temperatures are somewhat higher inland than they are along the coast, except at points of great elevation. Annual rainfall is about 1525 mm (about 60 in) in the northern, western, and central regions, 2540 mm (100 in) or more on the Thai portion of the Malay Peninsula, and 1270 mm (50 in) or less on the Khorat Plateau. Most rain falls in summer (June through October).
Natural Resources. Thailand is rich in natural resources. Among the known mineral deposits are coal, gold, lead, tin, tungsten, manganese, zinc, and precious stones. In addition, the country has many large forests that produce teak for export. The rich alluvial soil along the Chao Phraya and other rivers constitutes another important resource.
Plants and Animals Jungles and swamps, scattered through the coastal areas of Thailand, have extensive tracts of tropical trees, including mangrove, rattan, ironwood, sappanwood, ebony, and rosewood. The upland areas are also heavily wooded, the most valuable species being teak, agalloch, and oak. In addition, a wide variety of tropical plants and fruit trees, including orchid, gardenia, hibiscus, banana, mango, and coconut, occur in Thailand. Many species of animal inhabit the jungles and forests. Elephants, widely used as beasts of burden, are abundant. Other large quadrupeds include the rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, gaur, water buffalo, and gibbon. The Siamese cat is, as its name implies, indigenous to Thailand. Thailand has more than 50 species of snakes, including several poisonous varieties. Crocodiles are numerous, as are various species of fishes and birds.
Population The inhabitants of Thailand are primarily Thai, a people who are thought to have originated in southwestern China and migrated to Southeast Asia at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. An ethnic distinction is often made, however, between the Thai proper, who occupy the central regions, and the Lao people of the northwestern and eastern regions, who are related more closely to the people of neighboring Laos. The Thai proper constitute about 54 percent of the population; the Lao people make up about 28 percent of the population. The largest minority group consists of the Chinese, who make up about 1 percent of the total population and many of whom are Thai nationals. Other minority groups include the Malay-speaking Muslims in the south, the hill tribes in the north, and Cambodian (Khmer) and Vietnamese refugees in the east. The population of Thailand is about 77 percent rural.
Population Characteristics The population of Thailand was 58,722,437 (1993 estimate), yielding an overall population density of about 114 persons per sq km (about 296 per sq mi). The population is unevenly distributed, however, with the greatest concentration of people in the central region.
Political Divisions Thailand is divided into 73 provinces, called changwads. The provinces are further subdivided into 655 districts, called amphurs, more than 6600 communes, called tambons, and more than 58,600 villages, known as moobans.
Principal Cities Bangkok is the capital, chief seaport, and largest city (population, 1990 preliminary, greater city, 5,876,000). Other important towns include Chiang Mai (population, 1980 census, 101,594), the largest in northern Thailand; Songkhla (population, 1980 census, 172,604), on the Malay Peninsula; and Nakon Si Thammarat (population, 1980 census, 102,123), also on the Malay Peninsula.
Religion Buddhism is the prevailing religion of Thailand. The head of the Buddhist hierarchy, called the supreme patriarch, is generally a member of the royal family. About 95 percent of all Thais are Buddhists, and the country has approximately 18,000 Buddhist temples and 140,000 Buddhist priests. Nearly all Buddhist men in Thailand enter a wat (monastery) for at least a few days or months. Muslims, the majority of whom live in the area just north of Malaysia, constitute approximately 4 percent of the population, and the country also has some small Christian and Hindu communities.
Language Thai, a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family, is the chief language (see SINO-TIBETAN LANGUAGES). Four regional dialects are in use. Lao, Chinese, Mon-Khmer, and Malay are also spoken in Thailand. English is taught in some secondary schools and colleges and is also used in commerce and government.
Education Education in Thailand is free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 7 and 14, but the available school facilities, both public and in Buddhist monasteries, are insufficient to provide a primary education for all children. The literacy rate is nearly 90 percent, higher than that of most other countries of Southeast Asia. Elementary and Secondary Schools In the late 1980s primary schools numbered about 34,100, with 349,200 teachers and about 6.5 million pupils. More than 1400 secondary schools with 103,400 teachers had about 1.7 million pupils, and at least 1500 vocational and teacher-training schools were attended by more than 330,000 students. An additional 1 million students were enrolled in higher educational institutions.
Universities and Colleges Thailand has several universities, the largest of which include Chulalongkorn University (1917) in Bangkok and Chiang Mai University (1964) in the north. In addition, the Asian Institute of Technology (1959), in Bangkok, enrolled about 650 graduate students in the late 1980s.
Culture Thailand is unique in Southeast Asia in that the country has never been a dependency of another nation. Another notable difference is that Thai women, unlike women of some other East Asian countries, are active in business affairs, the professions, and the arts. No single culture has ever dominated the entire area. The period of greatest cultural development was the Sukhotai period (1238-1378), when the Thai absorbed elements of various civilizations with which they came in contact, including the Indian and the Chinese. Libraries and Museums The largest library in Thailand is the National Library in Bangkok. In addition, important technical collections are maintained in Bangkok at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the Asian Institute of Technology Library, and the Thai National Documentation Center. Thailand has a National Museum in Bangkok, which houses a large collection of ancient artifacts illustrating the development of Thai culture. Another important collection of Thai art was assembled by Jim Thompson, an American businessman who lived in Bangkok from the late 1940s to the 1960s. His reconstructed Thai house, filled with art, furniture, and ceramics, is now a museum.
Literature Classic Thai literature is based on tradition and history. The Ramakien, the Thai version of the Hindu epic Ramayana, is the leading classic on which Thai art and music are also based. Modern writing is more Western in style, and Thailand has many women among its authors of popular writing.
Art Among the most celebrated works of architecture in Thailand are the wats in Bangkok. Thai sculpture, dating from the 14th century, is a mixture of Chinese, Burmese, Hindu, and Khmer influences and is best seen in the temples and representations of Buddha. Thai religious paintings have been less well preserved; paintings are rarely older than 50 or 100 years. Thailand is known for producing beautiful silk textiles.
Music and Dance Thai music is very intricate and is a usual accompaniment of Thai drama. The instruments, primarily woodwind and percussion, are usually grouped in five- or ten-piece ensembles. Musicians sit on the floor to play, and generally play by ear. The dance in Thailand is equally intricate, following or deriving from Indian dancing and involving a series of gestures and swaying that interpret a story. Even the smallest movements reflect important story threads, carefully woven by performers dressed in elaborate costumes and headgear.
Economy The cultivation, processing, and export of agricultural products, especially rice, has traditionally been the mainstay of the Thai economy. Although Thailand has long been among the most prosperous of the Asian nations, its dependence on a single crop rendered it exceedingly vulnerable to fluctuations in the world price of rice and to variations in the harvest. The government has attempted to diminish this vulnerability by instituting a number of development programs aimed at diversifying the economy and by promoting scientific methods of farming, particularly controlled flooding of the rice fields, so that the rice harvest might remain stable even in years of scanty rainfall. Spurred largely by Japanese investment, Thailand industrialized rapidly during the 1980s and early 1990s. Tourism has also become an important part of Thailand's economy over the past decade. The estimated annual national budget in the late 1980s included revenue of about $10.4 billion and expenditure of about $11.3 billion.
Agriculture Thailand is one of the world's leading producers of rice, despite the fact that the yield per hectare is low. In the late 1980s Thailand annually produced approximately 20.8 million metric tons of rice, up from about 11.3 million metric tons per year in the 1960s. The second most important crop in value is rubber, which is raised mainly on plantations on the Malay Peninsula. In the late 1980s approximately 860,000 metric tons of rubber were produced each year. Other important crops included maize (5.2 million metric tons), sorghum (215,000), cassava (22.3 million), sugarcane (27.2 million), cotton lint (35,000), tobacco (54,000), coffee (31,000), coconuts (1.4 million), and kenaf (201,000), a fiber used in making canvas. Livestock totaled about 6 million buffalo, 5 million cattle, 4.3 million pigs, and 85 million chickens.
Forestry and Fishing About 28 percent of the total land area of Thailand is forested. The most valuable forest product is hardwood (especially teak). The annual timber harvest in the late 1980s totaled about 37.6 million cu m (about 1.3 billion cu ft). Fishing is also an important industry, and in the late 1980s the annual catch included 2.7 million metric tons of prawns, fish, and shellfish.
Mining Tin, of which Thailand is one of the world's largest producers, is the leading mineral; it is found chiefly on the Malay Peninsula. The country's chief mineral products include (with annual output in the late 1980s) tin concentrate (20,500 metric tons), lignite (7 million), gypsum (4.5 million), zinc ore (400,000), lead concentrate (55,300), iron ore (97,000), tungsten concentrate (1270), antimony ore (1000), and manganese ore (9100).
Manufacturing Manufacturing employs about 12 percent of the labor force. Food-processing industries, especially rice milling and sugar refining; textile and clothing manufacture; and the electronics industry predominate. Other important manufactured goods included cement (12 million metric tons), motor vehicles (250,000 units), cigarettes (37 million units), and various chemicals and petroleum products.
Energy In the late 1980s Thailand annually produced about 30 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, up from about 3 billion kilowatt-hours in 1968. More than 85 percent was produced in thermal installations, largely burning locally produced coal or imported petroleum; the remainder was generated in hydroelectric facilities.
Currency and Banking The basic unit of currency of Thailand is the baht, which is divided into 100 satang (25.40 baht equal U.S.$1; 1992). The Bank of Thailand, established in 1942, issues all currency. Thailand also has many commercial bank branches, as well as several foreign banks.
Foreign Trade In the late 1980s Thai exports were valued at about $15.8 billion annually, and imports were valued at about $17.9 billion. Principal exports were textiles and clothing, electronic components, rice, rubber, tin, cassava, sugar, and prawns. Imports included petroleum and petroleum products, nonelectrical machinery, transportation equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, and electrical machinery. Primary trading partners were Japan, the United States, Singapore, Germany, Malaysia, China, and the Netherlands.
Transportation The Thai railroad system, which totals about 3735 km (about 2320 mi) of track, is owned and operated by the state. Consisting of a network of lines radiating from Bangkok, the system extends as far north as Chiang Mai, southward to the frontier of Malaysia, eastward to Ubon, and northeastward through Udon Thani to Vientiane, Laos. Another line extends northwestward to the Burmese frontier. The Chao Phraya, navigable for about 80 km (about 50 mi) from its mouth, is an important inland waterway. The highway system was improved in the 1970s and now includes about 84,760 km (about 52,670 mi) of roads, of which 40 percent are paved. Thai Airways operates both domestic and international services. The port of Bangkok, one of the most modern in Southeast Asia, also serves neighboring landlocked Laos.
Communications More than 4.8 million television sets and 9.5 million radios were in use in the late 1980s in Thailand. Bangkok has more than 20 daily newspapers, including 2 in English and 6 in Chinese, which have a combined circulation of more than 2.3 million. Periodicals are published in Thai, English, and Chinese, and several weekly papers serve the provinces.
Labor In the late 1980s the labor force totaled 27.7 million, of which about 54 percent was engaged in agriculture. Organized labor is represented by more than 530 unions with a combined total of nearly 300,000 members.
Government A revolution in 1932 transformed Thailand into a constitutional monarchy after centuries of rule by absolute monarchs, but since then the country has been largely controlled by the military. The nation's 15th constitution took effect in 1991 and was amended in 1992.
Executive Under the 1991 constitution the king is Thailand's head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. A cabinet is headed by a prime minister, who in theory is the country's chief executive official. By the 1992 amendment to the constitution, the prime minister must be an elected member of the house of representatives. The prime minister may take any steps necessary to preserve the stability of the throne, to maintain public order, or to ensure that the economy functions smoothly. In practice, however, high-level military officers play a major role in government.
Legislature Legislative power in Thailand is vested in the bicameral National Assembly, which is made up of a house of representatives, with 360 members elected to four-year terms, and a senate, with 270 members appointed by the military for four-year terms.
Judiciary The highest court is the supreme court (Sarn Dika) sitting in Bangkok, which is the court of final appeal in all civil, criminal, and bankruptcy cases. A single court of appeals (Sarn Uthorn) has appellate jurisdiction in all cases. Courts of first instance include magistrates' courts with limited civil and criminal jurisdiction, provincial courts with unlimited jurisdiction, and civil and criminal courts with exclusive jurisdiction in Bangkok and Thon Buri. Under the 1991 constitution the independence of the judiciary is recognized.
Local Government Each of Thailand's 73 provinces, called changwads, are under the control of a governor appointed by the national government. District (amphur) officials are also appointed. Larger towns are governed by elected and appointed officials, and elected heads hold power at local levels.
Health and Welfare The Department of Public Welfare is charged with disaster relief, child welfare, and protection of the disabled and destitute. Special programs were initiated in the 1980s to assist the hill tribes of the north and the refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia in the east. A new and serious public health problem in Thailand is the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). In 1993, due largely to widespread prostitution, the estimated number of HIV-positive cases in Thailand numbered 450,000, a dramatic increase over the estimated 50,000 cases three years earlier. Thailand has some 12,700 physicians and 90,000 hospital beds.
Defense Military service is compulsory for two years for all able-bodied men between the ages of 21 and 30. In the early 1990s the armed forces included an army of 190,000 members, an air force of 43,000, and a navy of 62,000.
History Tai-speaking peoples, originating in western China, moved into Yunnan in the 2nd or 1st century BC. In the confusion following the collapse of the Han dynasty in AD 220, Tai leaders founded the kingdom of Nan Chao, which endured until the Mongol conquest in the mid-13th century (see NAN CHAO, KINGDOM OF). Long before that time, however, the Tai had begun a southward migration that, during the following centuries, led them far down the Malay peninsula and as far east as Cambodia. Here they were subject to Indian influences and adopted the Buddhist religion. By the end of the 13th century the Tai had formed a political entity and emerged as a nation afterward known as the Thai. In 1350 a unified Thai kingdom was established by a ruler known posthumously as Rama Tibodi. He founded the kingdom of Ayutthaya and made the city of Ayutthaya his capital. Despite intermittent warfare with the Cambodians and Burmese, the Ayutthaya kingdom flourished during the next four centuries, conquering Cambodia and the surviving states in the north. Meanwhile, the Thai had come into contact that was not always friendly with various European and Asian nations, including Portugal, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and China. Sovereignty Embattled
In 1767, following a four-year siege, Burmese troops captured and destroyed Ayutthaya. The rule of Burmese overlords in Thailand was shortly terminated in a Thai uprising led by General Pya Taksin, who proclaimed himself king. On his death the crown passed to General Pya Chakri, founder of the present dynasty of Thai kings, who ruled from 1782 to 1809 as Rama I. The British and Thai governments concluded a commercial treaty in 1826. Because of the rights and privileges obtained by this agreement, British influence increased in Thailand throughout the remainder of the 19th century. Owing to the statesmanship of two rulers, however, Thailand was spared the fate of colonization that befell its neighbors. Interested in Western science and civilization, King Mongkut, who reigned from 1851 to 1868, invited many European advisers to assist him in modernizing the country. His son, King Chulalongkorn, who reigned during the height of the onslaught of European colonization, continued the vigorous modernization efforts of his father and managed to maintain the country's independence, albeit at considerable cost in territorial concessions. For example, in 1893 Thailand became embroiled in a boundary dispute with France, then the dominant power in Cochin China, Annam, Tonkin, and Cambodia. The French dispatched warships to Bangkok and forced the Thais to yield Cambodia and all of Laos east of the Mekong River. Additional Thai territory, situated west of the Mekong, was acquired by France in 1904 and 1907. Thailand gave up control over four states in the Malay Peninsula to Great Britain in 1909. In exchange, the British relinquished most of their extraterritorial rights in the rest of the kingdom. The Thai government entered World War I (1914-1918) on the side of the Allies in July 1917. Thailand subsequently became a founding member of the League of Nations.
In June 1932, during the reign of King Prajadhipok, a small group of Thai military and political leaders organized a successful revolt against the government, until then an absolute monarchy. The insurgents, led by Pridi Phanomyong and Colonel Phibun Songgram, proclaimed a constitutional monarchy on June 27. Royalist opposition was finally overcome in October 1933. In March 1935 King Prajadhipok abdicated in favor of his nephew, Prince Ananda Mahidol. Thailand invalidated all of its treaties with foreign nations in November 1936. Under the provisions of new treaties negotiated in the following year, the government obtained complete autonomy over its internal and external affairs. World War II
With Japanese encouragement and support, Phibun's government made demands on France, beginning in 1940, for the return of the territory ceded in and after 1893. The dispute was settled, with Japanese mediation, in May 1941. By the terms of the settlement, Thailand received about 54,000 sq km (about 21,000 sq mi) of territory, including part of western Cambodia and all of Laos west of the Mekong River. The relations between Japan and Thailand became increasingly friendly thereafter. On December 8, 1941, a few hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Thai government granted Japan the right to move troops across the country to the Malayan frontier. Thailand declared war on the United States and Great Britain on January 25, 1942. Phibun's pro-Japanese government, however, was overthrown in July 1944; Pridi took over, and under his leadership considerable sympathy for the Allied cause developed among the Thai people. Thailand concluded a treaty with Great Britain and India in January 1946, renouncing, among other things, its claims to Malayan territory obtained during the war. Diplomatic relations with the United States were resumed in the same month. In November 1946 Thailand reached an agreement with France providing for the return to France of the territory obtained in 1941. Thailand was admitted to the United Nations (UN) on December 15, 1946, becoming the 55th member. Meanwhile, on June 9, 1946, King Ananda Mahidol had died under mysterious circumstances. A regency was appointed to rule during the minority of his brother and successor, King Rama IX. Domestic Instability
On November 9, 1947, a military junta led by Phibun seized control of the government. Except for a brief interlude early in 1948, Phibun thereafter retained control of the government until 1957. His regime, essentially a dictatorship, based its foreign policy on maintaining close relations with the United States and Great Britain. King Rama IX assumed the throne on May 5, 1950. After the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, Thailand assigned approximately 4000 men to the UN forces. On November 29, 1951, a group of army officers seized control of the government in a bloodless coup d'état and reestablished the authoritarian constitution of 1932, with some changes. Phibun was retained as premier. Meanwhile, a Free Thai movement, supported by the Chinese Communists and nominally headed by Pridi, had been formed in China.
Thai representatives took part in the Geneva Conference of April 1954, which temporarily ended the war in Indochina. In September 1954, Thailand was a founding member and Bangkok became the headquarters of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). In September 1957, Phibun's government was overthrown by a military coup d'état led by Marshall Sarit Thanarat, commander in chief of the Thai armed forces. A coalition government was formed in January 1958 under the premiership of Lieutenant General Thanom Kittikachorn. Another coup in October 1958, again headed by Sarit, overthrew the Thanom government. The constitution was suspended, a state of martial law was proclaimed, and all political parties were banned. In the early 1960s the government showed increasing concern over a rapidly growing Communist guerrilla movement in the north. The increase in terrorist attacks was one of the major problems faced by Thanom, who became prime minister again on Sarit's death in December 1963. The new government was also concerned about the deteriorating position of the pro-Western government in neighboring Laos and about the Vietnam War (1959-1975). Struggle for Democracy
On the political front, the government took gradual steps toward the restoration of political rights suspended in 1958. Elections to municipal councils were held for the first time in a decade in December 1967. A permanent constitution was promulgated in June 1968. Parliamentary elections were held in February 1969, in which the United Thai People's party won a plurality of 75 seats in the house of representatives. The largest opposition group, the Democratic party, won 56 seats. Beginning about 1969, the United States changed its role in Southeast Asia by gradually withdrawing its forces from Vietnam and by seeking friendly relations with China. These developments caused Thailand to establish a more flexible foreign policy, especially toward China and North Vietnam. At the same time, Thailand continued to face guerrilla activities in the north and along the border with Malaysia. The U.S. withdrawal from Southeast Asia had an adverse effect on the Thai economy. The declining economy and guerrilla activities were given as reasons for the establishment of a military government in November 1971. The military, led by General Thanom, abolished the constitution and dissolved Parliament. In December 1972 a new constitution was proclaimed.
In 1973 a series of student-led demonstrations against the military government resulted in Thanom's resignation in October and the appointment of a civilian cabinet. In late 1974 a new constitution was approved, and a freely elected government was formed in early 1975. Stability, however, remained elusive, and new elections in April 1976 made little difference. In September of that year the return of former Prime Minister Thanom from exile in Singapore led to bloody battles in Bangkok between leftist students and his right-wing supporters. In early October, as disorder was spreading, a military group led by Admiral Sa-ngad Chaloryu seized control of the country and installed a conservative government. A year later, however, that government also was brought down by Sa-ngad and his group. Sa-ngad instructed a new cabinet to try to bridge the divisions of Thai society and improve relations with the neighboring Communist regimes. Yet another constitution was promulgated in December 1978, and in April 1979elections were held for a new house of representatives. The military-installed government, however, remained in power until March 1980, when it was replaced by a new cabinet, headed by General Prem Tinsulanonda. Elections in 1983 left General Prem as head of a new coalition government. He dissolved the National Assembly in 1986 and called new elections. His party won, without a majority, and he again formed a coalition government. After elections in July 1988, Chatichai Choonhavan became prime minister. A military junta ousted him in February 1991 and installed an interim civilian government. After pro-military parties won the elections of March 1992, demonstrations in Bangkok calling for democratic reforms were violently suppressed. New elections in September resulted in another coalition government, with a veteran politician, Chuan Leekpai, as prime minister.
