Thailand

I

INTRODUCTION

Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand (Prathet Thai, or “Land of the Free”), country in Southeast Asia. Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been occupied by any European or other foreign power, except in war. The country was an absolute monarchy from 1782 until 1932, when rebels seized power in a coup and established a constitutional monarchy. Since then, Thailand has come under the rule of many governments, both civil and military. The country was known as Siam until 1939 (when it was renamed Thailand), and again for a few years in the late 1940s. In 1949 the name Thailand was adopted a second time.

Central Thailand is dominated by a large fertile plain, formed by the country’s chief river, the Chao Phraya, and its tributaries. Much of the country’s rice and other crops are grown in this region. Mountains and plateaus surround the central plain on the west, north, and east. The western mountain ranges extend south onto the Malay Peninsula (Malaya). Bangkok, located on the Chao Phraya near the Gulf of Thailand, is Thailand’s capital and largest city.

Thai people form the large majority of Thailand’s population, and most of them practice Theravada Buddhism. Other ethnic groups within the population include Chinese, Malays, and indigenous hill peoples, such as the Hmong and Karen. Thailand is known for its highly refined classical music and dance and for a wide range of folk arts. Traditionally based on agriculture, Thailand’s economy began developing rapidly in the 1980s.

II

PEOPLE AND SOCIETY OF THAILAND

Thailand (known until 1939 as Siam) has never been heavily populated. In 1668 an Indian king was reported to have commented somewhat disparagingly to a Siamese visitor that “the King of Golconda is a king of men, while your king is only a king of the forests and the mosquitoes!” By the 1800s Thailand’s population remained low at 2,000,000, and by 1950 it had risen to only 20,041,628. By 2008 the total population had increased to 65,493,298, giving a population density of 128 persons per sq km (332 per sq mi), still one of the lowest in Asia.

Residents of cities are 32 percent of Thailand’s inhabitants. More than 10 percent is concentrated in Bangkok, where serious problems of overcrowding do exist. Since World War II, a significant number of rural Thai have moved from the countryside to cities in search of better economic opportunities. Many Thai people also have migrated abroad either on a permanent basis, mainly to the United States and Canada, or on a temporary one, as migrant laborers, to other Southeast Asian countries (such as Singapore) and to countries of the Middle East.

With an annual rate of population growth of 0.6 percent, Thailand’s population is expected to double in 108 years. However, family size is falling. The Thai have a long tradition of family planning and the use of contraception, which partly reflects the fact that women gain status through their ability to trade rather than through family size. In 2008 the birthrate was 13.6 births per 1,000 people, and the average number of children per woman was 1.6. The proportion of the Thai population that is elderly has grown in recent decades, with 8 percent of the population age 65 or older in 2008. This number is expected to reach 14 percent by 2025.

A

Ethnic Groups

Although the majority of Thailand’s people (about 75 percent) are classified as Thai, the country has a complex ethnic composition. The Thai themselves vary considerably, with those of the central plain differing markedly in culture and language from those of the north and northeast, known as the Lao. Many Thai have some Chinese ancestry, and Chinese constitute the largest single minority group in the country (about 14 percent of the total population).

The mountains of northern Thailand are home to a number of different hill peoples, including the Akha, the Hmong (also known as the Meo or Miao), the Karen, and the Lua’. Most of these peoples practice slash-and-burn agriculture. Many produce dry hill (or upland) rice, and some, such as the Hmong, produces opium. Farther south are populations of Mon people as well as groups of Khmer (Cambodian) and Vietnamese refugees. The southern peninsula is home to ethnic Malays.

Thailand’s official language is standard Thai, formerly known as Siamese, which is spoken by about 40 percent of the population. Thai is the predominant member of the Tai family of languages, which includes about 60 languages spoken throughout Southeast Asia. The Tai languages are difficult to place linguistically but usually are linked to either the Sino-Tibetan or Austronesian language families. Standard Thai is written in the Thai alphabet, derived from the Indian Devanagari script, and is characterized by the use of five tones. A strong Thai literary tradition goes back to the 13th century.

Another 50 percent of Thailand’s population speaks Tai languages other than Thai, such as Lao, spoken in the northeast. Most educated Thai speak English, and Chinese is also widely used. English, Chinese, and Japanese are often the languages of commerce. The Mon-Khmer family of languages is represented both among the hill peoples of the north and in lowland groups of Mon and Khmer peoples. Some Malay is spoken in the south.

B

Religion

Theravada Buddhism is the prevailing religion in Thailand, with about 95 percent of the Thai majority being Theravada Buddhist. Theravada is a school of Buddhist belief that spread to Thailand beginning in the 13th century, primarily via Sri Lanka. Thailand’s most characteristic architectural feature is the wat, the Thai Buddhist temple, of which there are an estimated 18,000. Nearly all Thai men enter a Buddhist monastery for at least a few days or months.

Despite the predominance of Buddhism, Thai religion is highly syncretic, meaning that it combines different systems of religious practice and belief. Many Buddhist ceremonies include elements of animism (worship of objects and phenomena of nature), Hinduism, and even Christianity. Small Muslim groups, comprising about 7 percent of the population, are found throughout the country, especially in the southern peninsula. Some hill peoples, including members of the Karen, are Roman Catholic, while missionaries from Europe and North America have converted others to Protestantism. Very few ethnic Thai have converted to Western religions.

C

Education

An estimated 96 percent of Thailand’s population is literate. The country has a comprehensive educational system that extends from kindergarten to university and adult education. Education is free and compulsory for 9 years beginning at age 6, and 97 percent of primary-school aged children are enrolled. About 81 percent of students continue to secondary education, which normally finishes at age 17. The country has a wide range of private schools, from international schools to palace and experimental schools.

Thailand has a growing university sector, and 38 percent of Thais of university age are enrolled. Universities include the prestigious Chulalongkorn University, Mahidol University (a medical school), Kasetsart University (for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries), Thammasat University (for the social sciences), Silpakorn University (for fine arts), and the Asian Institute of Technology, all located in Bangkok, and Chiang Mai University, in the north. The country also has a number of teacher-training colleges. Many Thai students choose to study abroad, especially in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan.

III

ECONOMY OF THAILAND

The recent history of Thailand’s economy is defined by more than a decade of sustained and rapid economic growth beginning in 1985, followed by a severe recession that started in late 1997. During the boom years, economic growth averaged more than 7 percent annually, one of the highest rates in the world. The crisis of 1997 and 1998 wiped out some of the gains of the boom and forced major adjustments in Thai industry and economic policy.

Many different factors contributed to the rapid growth of Thailand’s economy. Low wages, policy reforms that opened the economy more to trade, and careful economic management resulted in low inflation and a stable exchange rate. These factors encouraged domestic savings and investment and made the Thai economy an ideal host for foreign investment. Foreign and domestic investment caused manufacturing to grow rapidly, especially in labor-intensive, export-oriented industries, such as those producing clothing, footwear, electronics, and consumer appliances. These industries also benefited from a tremendous expansion in world trade during the 1980s. As industry expanded, many Thai people who previously had worked in agriculture began to work in manufacturing, slowing growth in the agriculture sector. Meanwhile, manufacturing growth spurred the expansion of service sector activities.

By 2006 Thailand’s per capita income reached $3,050, making it an upper-middle income developing economy. Although Thailand was technically still a poor country, spectacular income gains enjoyed by the urban middle class made the country one of the world’s large markets for luxury cars and other expensive consumer goods. However, by Asian standards the gains of growth were not distributed equally among the Thai population: between 1981 and 1994 the incomes of the richest 20 percent of the population grew significantly in comparison to those of the poorest 20 percent. Nevertheless, nearly all Thai benefited in some fashion from growth. The percentage of the population living in poverty fell from 23 percent in 1981 to less than 10 percent in 1994.

A

Labor

The Thai labor force totaled 36.5 million workers in 2006. Although agriculture’s share in national income is now very small, official statistics indicate that 43 percent of the labor force is still employed in that sector, with 20 percent in industry and 37 percent in services. These statistics are likely to overstate agriculture’s true share of the labor force, as many rural Thai engage in seasonal migration, working in cities for part of the year and returning to the countryside during peak demand periods in agriculture, such as the rice harvest. Within industry, most employment is with small firms (those with less than 50 employees). Less than 10 percent of the labor force is unionized, although that figure rises to more than 20 percent in larger firms of 50 or more employees.

The economic boom of 1985 to 1996 caused massive growth in total employment, especially of unskilled and semiskilled workers. From 1990 to 1996, real wages (adjusted for inflation) rose by about 10 percent per year. The employment boom drew many Thai from rural areas to urban centers and resulted in a large influx of illegal immigrants from poorer neighboring countries, such as Laos and Myanmar.

Following the 1997 collapse of Thailand’s economy, unemployment and underemployment became serious problems, with the former peaking at nearly 3 million jobless in mid-1998. Some of the unemployed returned to rural areas, but many more remained in the cities in the hope that jobs would become available again once the economy recovered.

A longer-term issue for the Thai economy is the prevailing low educational attainment of Thai workers, as compared to their counterparts in other middle-income developing economies. Although the literacy rate is high, official figures show that only 56 percent of children of high school age are enrolled in high school.

B

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

Agriculture was traditionally the mainstay of the Thai economy. However, along with the remarkable acceleration of economic growth in the 1980s came rapid changes in the country’s economic structure. While agricultural production increased, the economic contributions of industry and services grew faster, which decreased the relative importance of farming. Agriculture’s share of GDP fell from 23 percent in 1980 to 11 percent in 1996 as Thailand moved into the ranks of the so-called newly industrializing economies.

Thailand has 18 million hectares (44 million acres) of land under cultivation. Of this total, about 5 million hectares (12 million acres) of irrigated land produce most of the country’s major crop, rice. Other important crops include sugarcane, natural rubber, corn, soybeans, coconuts, and other tropical fruits. Agricultural exports, especially of rice, were the basis for most of Thailand’s early trade. The country is still a major exporter of rice, but its agricultural trade has diversified to include rubber, cassava, fruits, flowers, and many other products.

Much of the expansion of agriculture has taken place at the expense of forest cover, which is disappearing at a rate of 0.6 percent per year. The timber harvest in 2006 was 28 million cubic meters (1 billion cubic feet), nearly all of which was burned for fuel. Following severe flood damage caused by deforestation, the Thai government banned all commercial logging in 1989. Formerly an exporter of tropical hardwoods, Thailand now imports much of its timber from neighboring countries.

IV				HISTORY OF THAILAND
A			Early History

It is natural to think that the history of Thailand is the history of the Thai people, but in fact it is much more than that. The Thai were relative latecomers on the scene, becoming the majority of the region’s population only 700 or 800 years ago. The lands now included in Thailand have been inhabited for 4,000 or 5,000 years. Even long ago, people of the region were adept at adopting new technologies and absorbing new populations.

The society and economy of Thailand’s earliest inhabitants, in prehistoric times, went through a long evolution. As is demonstrated by archaeological discoveries at Ban Chiang and other sites, these early peoples were among the first in the world to make and use bronze tools and weapons, to which they later added iron. They domesticated pigs and chickens, cultivated rice and caught fish, and produced fabrics from bark and fibrous plants. They lived in small villages scattered over a broad area.

In early historic times, the peoples living in what is now central Thailand probably spoke Mon-Khmer languages (a group of languages of the Austro-Asiatic language family) and were absorbed into a number of local states that developed in the area. Especially between the 6th and 9th centuries, the kingdom of Dvaravati dominated the central plain of the Chao Phraya River system and the Khorat Plateau to its east. The most enduring legacy of this period was Theravada Buddhism, which was strongly influenced by the Buddhism of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). Many of the region’s inhabitants embraced Buddhism. Many also were exposed regularly to foreign trade by traders passing through the region when traveling between China and India by sea.

B

Colonialism Averted

The new monarch was King Mongkut (Rama IV), the younger son of Rama II, who assumed the throne in 1851. Mongkut had spent 27 years as a Buddhist monk and had used the time in intellectual pursuits, learning Western languages and science. He was well acquainted with the few British and Americans in Bangkok and had much more experience of the lives of common people than had any of his predecessors. Mongkut and his son Chulalongkorn (Rama V), who reigned from 1868 to 1910, are given much credit for Siam’s conciliation of the West during the next half-century. While this is justified, much credit also is due to their ministers. Together they blunted the force of Western imperialism, which swept over much of the rest of the world during this period. In 1855 Siam signed the Bowring Treaty, which yielded free trade, extraterritorial rights, and some special privileges to Britain. The treaty served as a model for subsequent treaties with the United States, France, Japan, and many other nations. These treaties were known as unequal treaties because they placed Thailand in a subordinate diplomatic position. However, by upholding these treaties, avoiding offending the imperial powers, and playing those powers against one another, Siam managed to secure its own independence while working to earn the respect of the West.

As modern as King Mongkut might have been in the eyes of the West, he undertook no fundamental reforms during his reign. Such reforms would have been bitterly resisted by Siam’s entrenched noble and bureaucratic families. His successor, Chulalongkorn, was unable to undertake real reform until the leading members of the old families began to retire from public life in the 1880s.

Cambodia had come under French control in 1863, and in 1885 France completed its conquest of Vietnam. Britain took the last remaining portion of Burma the same year. When in 1893 Siam mounted a resistance against French troops sent to Laos to press Vietnam’s claims there, France sent gunboats to Bangkok. The Thai capitulated and had to yield to France their sovereignty over Laos and also pay a large indemnity. Most of Laos then became part of French Indochina, France’s colony in the region. France gained additional territories in Laos and Cambodia from Siam by treaty in 1904 and 1907. In 1909 Siam ceded to Britain the four northern Malay states (Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu), while the British agreed to assist in financing a Bangkok-Singapore rail line and to yield some of their extraterritorial rights.

Meanwhile, between about 1890 and 1910 Chulalongkorn’s government launched a major administrative reform, establishing virtually all of Siam’s modern government. The existing departments were reorganized into twelve ministries, including ministries of war (for a new army), justice, education, interior (for administration of the countryside), and public works, as well as specialized departments for such things as postal services, railroads, and hospitals. Chulalongkorn also established new, modern schools and encouraged study abroad. The kingdom’s new administration made tax collection possible. The government used the tax revenues to finance reforms and to create jobs for the many modern educated people emerging from the kingdom’s new schools.

In 1910 Chulalongkorn was succeeded by his son Vajiravudh (Rama VI), who had been educated in England. King Vajiravudh was an active proponent of the idea of the nation, and he popularized the idea of sacrificing, and even dying, for Siam. In July 1917 he entered Siam in World War I on the side of the Allies, winning for the kingdom a seat at the Versailles peace conference. Vajiravudh hoped to gain a sympathetic hearing for Siam’s wishes to end extraterritoriality. His strategy worked, and in the early 1920s the Western nations and Japan agreed to end their unequal treaties with Siam as soon as Siam completed modernizing its laws and courts.

But King Vajiravudh wastefully spent the nation’s budget on his favorites and on personal pursuits, forcing his younger brother and successor, King Prajadhipok (Rama VII), to institute a massive cutback of expenses. The worldwide economic slump known as the Great Depression, which hit Siam by 1930, intensified the country’s financial troubles. Although Prajadhipok favored modest democratization, he was overruled repeatedly by his elderly uncles. Dissatisfaction grew within the kingdom, especially among young Siamese educated abroad who objected to the tight political control maintained by their country’s rulers.

C

World War II

In 1940 Thailand fought a brief war with French Indochina, which had become cut off from France as a result of World War II. With Japanese mediation, the Thai government regained the territories in Laos and Cambodia that had been ceded to France in 1904 and 1907. On December 8, 1941, Japanese troops landed on Thailand’s southern coast. This was around the same time that the Japanese launched attacks on Pearl Harbor, Midway, Guam, Manila, Hong Kong, and other sites. After tense meetings with the Japanese and his cabinet, Phibun agreed to allow the Japanese to move their troops through Thailand to invade and occupy the British-controlled Malay Peninsula, Singapore, and Burma. In January 1942 Thailand declared war against Britain and the United States. In 1943 Japan rewarded the Phibun government for its cooperation with the Japanese by awarding Thailand part of the territory that had been incorporated into British Burma in 1885 and the four Malay states that Siam had been forced to cede in 1909.

Meanwhile, considerable anti-Japanese sentiment was developing in Thailand. With aid from the United States government, Pridi and M. R. Seni Pramoj, the wartime Thai ambassador to the United States, organized the underground Free Thai Movement to agitate against Japanese influence. In July 1944, as the war began to turn against Japan, Phibun was forced from office, and Khuang Aphaiwong, a civilian, took over as prime minister. Pridi continued to be a major power behind the scenes. When the war suddenly ended in August 1945, M. R. Seni Pramoj returned to become prime minister. He faced not only chaos and the disruption caused by nearly four years of Japanese presence but also extensive demands by European nations that threatened to turn Thailand into a Western colony. With strong American support, Thailand successfully resisted these pressures. However, the Thai government did restore to Britain and France the territories in Indochina, Burma, and the Malay Peninsula that it had gained during the war. After doing so, Thailand was admitted to the United Nations (UN) in December 1946.

In June 1946 King Ananda died under mysterious circumstances, an event for which many irrationally blamed Pridi and others seen as opposing the monarchy. Ananda’s younger brother succeeded to the throne as King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), but a regency council ruled until 1951 while Bhumibol completed his studies abroad.