To understand of the amazing wealth and character of Thailand's cultural heritage, you must begin with the influence of ancient India. This first entered Southeast Asia perhaps 2,300 years ago. It continued for several centuries as Indian merchants and scholars settled in the region.

It is easy to see how important this influence is to modern Thailand. Buddhist religion and popular myth are the most obvious examples. Much of Thailand's royal tradition is also rooted in Indian culture. The present dynasty, of which his Majesty King Bhumibol is the ninth monarch , is known formally as the House of Chakri. While this title comes directly from the name of the founding monarch before he became king, the word chakra actually means the discuss of Hindu mythology. It provides a clear link to Hindu beliefs.

According to ancient belief, his Majesty is the fount of everything. His representative still presides over the stately Ploughing Ceremony in May each year to foretell the state of the annual harvest. The precise date and time of the event are determined by court astrologers. Both the ceremony and the astrology come directly from India.

So does the riotous water throwing fun of Songkran, Thailand's traditional New Year in mid-April. Its date was originally fixed by the Hindu solar calendar. Another example is the Giant Swing next to Wat Suthat near the Bangkok Municipality offices. Its rites, now discontinued, were administered by Brahman priests.

But to think only in terms of Indian influence on Thailand would be deeply misleading. Who were the people who received that culture? How did they transform it and make it distinctively and gloriously Thai?

People have lived in what is now Thailand for at least 27,000 years. Early man may have been here as long as 700,000 years ago. Evidence is increasingly common, the telltale signs being flint tools and other remains found near rock shelters in the country's plentiful limestone hills.

The first signs of true culture emerge about 12,000 years ago, with formal burial of the dead, along with food for their journey, at a cave called Tham Phra in the western province of Kanchanaburi. By 8,000 years ago, settled cave dwellers in Mae Hong Son province in Thailand's far North had begun making pottery with simple linear decorations. They included these pots in their burial rites too.

From those pots to the ones produced by Thailand's famous Ban Chiang civilization near Udon Thani in the Northeast 5,000 years ago is a step of huge significance. By this time, cave-dwelling communities of hunter-gatherers had given way to recognizably modern agricultural settlements. People lived in their own houses raised on stilts. The sophistication of the Ban Chiang pots and their decoration is remarkable.

The events of the next few thousand years are still shrouded in uncertainly. What is clear is that the transition to large settlements and then groups of settlements requiring developed social and cultural structures began to occur some 3,000 to 2,000 years ago. This "proto-civilization" provided the fertile ground on which Indian influence was sown.

Four such civilizations are important. One of the earliest though perhaps least understood was that of the animist and possibly indigenous Lawa people. It centered on modern Lop Buri and spread south to north in the Chao Phraya River basin. To the west and in southern Burma, the Mon people subsequently established the Dvaravati civilization, one of whose main centers was Nakhon Pathom. To the east, meanwhile, and perhaps deriving from Ban Chiang, the great Khmer civilization gradually took root along the mighty Mekong River.

Buddhism is thought to have first come to Thailand at Nakhon Pathom, while Indian concepts of divine kingship first took root in the Khmer empire. Fed by these ideas, both civilizations grew, squeezing the less sophisticated Lawa northwards. Eventually, some 1,000 years ago, the Khmer also vanquished the Dvaravati civilization, becoming so powerful that they ruled the entire area.

Only the southern isthmus where the Srivijaya civilization had taken root was unaffected. But even here Indian influence was strong.

Considerable scholarly controversy now rages as to where the Thai people were at this time.

The conventional view is that they, together with their Shan and Lao cousins and their distinctive animist beliefs, were beginning to migrate southwards along the Mekong from Southern China. A more recent proposal is that they either filtered in from Laos and Vietnam or were here all the time.

However that may be, they assimilated a blend of animism, Buddhism, and kingship that has proven amazingly powerful. Beginning by nibbling away at the perimeter of the Khmer empire at Sukhothai and in Lanna (northern) Thailand some 700 years ago, they later established the glorious court at Ayutthaya, and eventually Bangkok.

Many peoples, among them the Chinese, Arabs, Malays, and Westerners, have contributed to Thailand's cultural heritage. Yet one symbol encapsulates it all, and you will see it wherever you go.

It is the spirit house. This is the tiny model of a temple or palace that is planted all over the country, on any piece of property or just by the roadside. It is always, out of respect, raised on a pedestal. It often looks Chinese and is usually now made using Western technology. But its entirely serious purpose is to accommodate the spirits of the land who have been disturbed by our activities.

A magnificence of kingdoms
Khmer Kingdom
The divine kings

Khmer culture, at its height from 900 to 1300 CE, was strongly Indian, particularly in its concept of a divine monarch as head of state and its strongly centralized administration. These characteristics can clearly be seen in the magnificent shrines that still adorn several Thai cities.

The best example of Khmer culture is undoubtedly at Phimai, some 60 kilometres north-east of Nakhon Ratchasima. The old temple stands in the middle of the modern town. The outlines of the old fortified town can still be traced. It was strictly rectangular in plan, as were all Khmer settlements, and it was made doubly secure by placing it on an artificial island. This combination of man-made and natural defenses became a common feature of later Thai cities.

Phimai clearly shows the strong central orientation of the Khmer administration. Although the old town may well pre-date the surviving structures at Angkor by some 50 years, its main southern gate faced the Khmer capital, and a 240-kilometre road led directly to it. The road passed the Phanom Rung and Muang Tham sanctuaries roughly 70 kilometers to the south. Both these sites can easily be reached from Nakhon Ratchasima on the Ubon Ratchathani road.

Happily, Phimai was restored by the same team that restored Angkor while Phanom Rung and Muang Tham, both well preserved in rolling countryside, offer some superb vistas. Phanom Rung in particular conveys the stately sense of power and mass, the sheer grandeur that is the hallmark of Khmer architecture.

But don't miss the vibrant, superbly executed scenes from the Indian Ramayana epic set out in bas-relief at Phimai. These three sites thus offer some of the finest, most perfect examples of Khmer architecture and decorative art to be found anywhere in the world.

Other outstanding Khmer treasures in Thailand include the powerfully evocative sanctuary at Muang Singh (Lion City) which, far to the west in Kanchanaburi province, demonstrates the sheer extent of the empire at its height. The imposing triple-spired shrines at Lop Buri that stand dramatically within the modern city, one spire each for the triumvirate of Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, are another example. Like Phimai, Lop Buri was an important Khmer center and was to serve
other civilizations too.

Sukhothai Kingdom
The dawn of happiness

Sukhothai, some 480 kilometers north of Bangkok, is where most Thais believe their country's amazing culture really began. From 1238, this ancient, magical city, some 13 kilometers west of the modern town, was the capital of the first truly Thai kingdom. Its third king, the great Ramkhamhaeng, is credited with devising the Thai alphabet from ancient Mon and Khmer scripts. He also established and engraved in stone the basis for a just and humane absolute monarchy and introduced Theravada Buddhism to his people.

The kingdom is credited with producing the most sublime religious art and sculpture ever seen in Thailand, and for manufacturing the most perfect pottery. The slender, delicate , compassionate lines of the enormous Buddha images that still tower over the old town are indeed utterly distinctive. Experts point out that they incorporate Khmer, Dvaravati, and Srivijaya sculptural elements.

Similarly, the soft silky greys of Sawankhalok stoneware, produced first at Sukhothai itself and later at Si Satchanalai to the north to take advantage of superior clays, cannot be mistaken. The pottery incorporated Chinese skills. Hundreds of massive kilns at Si Satchanalai are still being excavated.

But Sukhothai was much more than this. Although it lasted less than 200 years and was established on the flanks of the waning Khmer empire, it also developed the concept of the Thai town. For while Sukhothai itself, set four-square on the plain and protected by triple walls and intervening moats, was built substantially on the Khmer model, its sister cities at Si Satchanalai to the north and Kamphaeng Phet to the west were not.

These cities are irregular trapezoids. This pattern was so successful in terms of defense (it allowed more wall forts) and flexibility to match the terrain that it was never abandoned. Most interesting of all, it also represented a marriage of Hindu ideas from India and animist beliefs from the Lawa of Lop Buri or perhaps from Haripunchai (now Lamphun) in the north, which was also initially Lawa.

Ayutthaya Kingdom
City of enchantment

Ayutthaya, about 80 kilometers north of Bangkok, was described in these terms by European traders some 350 years ago. The cultural base from which it derived in 1350 was as much Dvaravati (centred on U Thong) as Thai from Sukhothai, although of course it emerged from the Sukhothai kingdom.

Its scintillating art and architecture was a delicate blend of Dvaravati, Khmer, Mon, and Lawa cultures that received a further Khmer infusion as a result of Ayutthaya's conquest of Cambodia. All the amazing splendor of the Ayutthaya court that so awed its visitors derives directly from this fantastic cultural coming-together.

It was no accident. The city site at the heart of the river line system of the lower Chao Phraya basin was carefully chosen to allow a mooted trapezoid plan and a water-borne way of life. This more than anything else enchanted its visitors, but it was practical too.

Ayutthaya's sister city, Lop Buri, was just a short distance north. It shared in the capital's splendor. One of Thailand's greatest kings, Narai, built a palace there that can still be seen. It was these two glorious cities that Europeans first saw.

Unhappily, all these fabulous glories were ruthlessly sacked by a Burmese invasion in 1767. All that remains of 417 glorious years are the ruins you can see today. They are now a World Heritage Site.

To capture the sense of this amazing period of Thai culture, it is best to travel by boat up to Ayutthaya from Bangkok. Once there, use the hands-on audio-visual system at the museum to grasp its magnificence.

Lanna Kingdom
Mountain fastness

At much the same time as Ramkhamhaeng was establishing the first truly Thai kingdom at Sukhothai, other dramatic events were unfolding further north. In Chiang Saen, an early Thai city on the banks of the Mekong River, a young prince named Mengrai set out to unify the mountainous region immediately to the south of him.

In doing so, he founded both Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai and subdued the Mon city of Haripunchai (now Lamphun) and Lampang. His kingdom, Lanna, extended into what is now Burma and bordered Sukhothai. As it happens, the two kings were good friends. But the mountainous nature of Lanna meant that it developed and still maintains a very different culture from the rest of Thailand. At least two distinctions stand out.

The first is the astonishing diversity of cultures contained in the small Lanna area. Whereas lowland populations were relatively homogeneous, those in Lanna diverged sharply. The main division was between the farmers and townspeople of the valleys and the hill tribes of the uplands. The hill tribes themselves represent several very distinct ethnic stocks, so that a multitude of languages, customs, beliefs, architecture's, diets, and styles of dress exist harmoniously side by side.

The second difference is that Lanna was isolated. It was open to repeated Burmese and Lao attacks and occupations throughout its history, although Lanna, too, did its share of fighting. The prolonged Burmese influence is particularly noticeable in the square tiered towers on many of the temples. Place names still reflect a Burmese presence.

Important links between Lanna and the rest of Thailand were also forged. The revered Emerald Buddha originally came to light at Chiang Rai in 1434. It was housed for over a century at Lampang and Chiang Mai before eventually finding its way to Bangkok via Vientiane. Thai and Lanna royalty inter-married.

This exciting mixture of cultures in all its diversity is now easily accessible to visitors via a first-class road system and air network. You will be dazzled by the cultural brilliance of this small area.

 

Dvaravati Kingdom
Compassion and the rule of law

 

Dvaravati is the name of an early Mon civilization. It was influential from the 6th to 11th centuries CE, predating both Srivijaya in the south and the Khmers by at least a century. It also faded before both of them, eventually all but overwhelmed by Khmer vigor.

 

Mon communities have survived along Thailand's western border and even in pockets close to Bangkok right up to the present. Lamphun in northern Thailand was also Mon. Strong traces of its civilization remain.

 

Dvaravati culture was centered on the area between Nakhon Pathom, a little-fortified town some 50 kilometers west of Bangkok, and U Thong to the north. Its enduring emblem is Phra Pathom Chedi, the massive bell-shaped Buddhist shrine with its golden spire at Nakhon Pathom. This is where Buddhism is believed to have been first taught in Thailand. The stupa, at 120.45 meters, is the tallest Buddhist structure in the world.

 

Theravada Buddhism was not the only Dvaravati contribution to Thai culture. It also introduced the Thammasat Code of Law. While the Khmer approach based on a divine monarchy and strong centralization of authority proved more powerful in the short run, the more gentle, peaceable Buddhist approach based on common rules eventually prevailed.

 

It was the prince of U Thong who founded Ayutthaya and wrested power from Sukhothai. The Ayutthaya kings began to decentralize royal authority, initially by appointing four Great. Officers to oversee the Royal Household, Local Government, Finance, and Agriculture. This process of gradual decentralization continues to this day.

 

If you can afford the time, travel at least part of the way to these sites by boat. This is how most journeys were made in those days. You will be rewarded by a delightfully different perspective of a beautiful country.

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