- published: 15 Mar 2015
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The culture of Thailand incorporates cultural beliefs and characteristics indigenous to the area known as modern day Thailand coupled with much influence from ancient India, China, Cambodia, along with the neighboring pre-historic cultures of Southeast Asia. It is influenced primarily by Animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, as well as by later migrations from China, and southern India.
Thailand is nearly 94%-95% Theravada Buddhist (which includes the Thai Forest Tradition and the Dhammayuttika Nikaya and Santi Asoke sects), with minorities of Muslims (5-6%), Christians (1%), Mahayana Buddhists, and other religions.Thai Theravada Buddhism is supported and overseen by the government, with monks receiving a number of government benefits, such as free use of the public transportation infrastructure.
Buddhism in Thailand is strongly influenced by traditional beliefs regarding ancestral and natural spirits, which have been incorporated into Buddhist cosmology. Most Thai people own spirit houses, miniature wooden houses in which they believe household spirits live. They present offerings of food and drink to these spirits to keep them happy. If these spirits aren't happy, it is believed that they will inhabit the larger household of the Thai, and cause chaos. These spirit houses can be found in public places and in the streets of Thailand, where the public make offerings.
The Thai people, or formerly Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Tai–Kadai family of languages, and the majority of Thai are followers of Theravada Buddhism. The term Thai people may also refer to the population of Thailand in general, and not only to ethnic Thais. Today, "Thai people" usually includes Central and Southern Thai (Siamese proper), Northern Thai (Lanna) and Isan people (strictly speaking Western Lao).[citation needed]
There have been many theories proposing the origin of the Tai people, especially the association of the Tai people with the Kingdom of Nanzhao that has been proved to be invalid. Linguistic studies suggested that the origin of the Tai people lies around the Chinese Province of Guangxi, where the Zhuang people are still a majority. The ancient Tai people should be the part of Chinese Nanyue or "southern barbarians". The Qin dynasty founded Guangdong in 241 BC, initiating the successive waves of Chinese migrations from the north for hundred years to come.