Culture of Thailand

Thailand's culture "incorporates a great deal of influence from India, China, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia." It is influenced primarily by animism, Indian culture and Buddhism.

Lifestyle

Religion

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 install spirit houses, miniature wooden houses outside their dwellings, where 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 household and cause chaos. These spirit houses can be found in public places and on the streets of Thailand, where the public make offerings.

Thai

When used as an adjective, Thai refers to anything that originates from Thailand. As a noun it may refer to:

See also

Thai people

The Thai people, formerly known as 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 and northeastern India. Their language is the Thai language, which exists in different regional variants, and is classified as part of the Tai–Kadai family of languages, and the majority of Thai are followers of Theravada Buddhism.

"Thai people" usually includes central and southern Thai (Siamese proper, or Tai Siam), northern Thai (Lanna) and Isan people.

The term Thai people has a loose meaning and sometimes also refers to the population of Thailand in general, and not only to ethnic Thais.

History

There have been many theories proposing the origin of the Tai peoples, of which the Thai are a subgroup. 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, referred to by Han leaders as "foreign servant" (Chinese: 外臣), synecdoche for a vassal state. The Qin dynasty founded Guangdong in 214 BC, initiating the successive waves of Chinese migrations from the north for hundred years to come.

Thailand

Coordinates: 15°24′N 101°18′E / 15.4°N 101.3°E / 15.4; 101.3

Thailand (/ˈtaɪlænd/ TY-land or /ˈtaɪlənd/ TY-lənd;Thai: ประเทศไทย, rtgs: Prathet Thai), officially the Kingdom of Thailand (Thai: ราชอาณาจักรไทย, rtgs: Ratcha-anachak Thai; IPA: [râːt.tɕʰá.ʔāː.nāː.tɕàk tʰāj]), formerly known as Siam (Thai: สยาม; rtgs: Sayam), is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, 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 the southern extremity of Myanmar. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest.

Thailand is governed by the National Council for Peace and Order that took power in the May 2014 coup d'état.Its monarchy is headed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has reigned since 1946 as Rama IX, as he is the ninth monarch of the Chakri Dynasty. He is currently the world's longest-serving head of state and the country's longest-reigning monarch; he has reigned for 7009219907440000000♠69 years, 250 days.