On our journey towards an understanding of the Thai people, it is as opportune as logical to begin with the context which properly belongs to them. This and the following chapters thus provide a cultural background of the Thai people who have their unique history and life-style.
The terminology used in reference to the Thai and Thailand is a source of some confusion. The language and culture group (Thai, T'ai, or Tai) lives in Thailand, Laos, northern Vietnam, southeast China and northern Myanmar. In various places, these people are known as Thai, Shan, Lao, and, in the case of those living along the Chao Phya River Basin, Siamese. The present kingdom of Thailand was officially named Siam until 1939 as well as from 1946 to 1949. In 1939 and again in 1949 the name Thailand was adopted.1
There is a suggestion of nationalism and even
irredentism in this name.2
The present kingdom of Thailand occupies a territory of about 514,000 square kilometers in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula of Southeast Asia. Its greatest width is about 780 kilometers, its greatest length about double that distance. The coast line contains roughly 1,875 kilometers on the Gulf of Thailand, and about 740 kilometers on the Indian Ocean. Listed clockwise, countries bordering on Thailand are the Lao People's Republic and Cambodia on the north and east, Malaysia on the south and the Union of Myanmar on the west and north. Bangkok is the capital and also the principal part of Thailand.
Thailand's climate is tropical. The year is divided roughly into three seasons. From July through October, the southeast monsoons bring the hot, rainy season. From November through February, the northeast monsoon brings a cooler, drier period, when humidity may drop from the average monthly high of 95.2 % to an average low of 58.5 %. During this season, temperatures may drop to about 20°C. in the early morning, and go no higher than about 30°C. during the day. The period from March through June usually is hot and humid. In the north and northeast sections of the country temperatures are usually more extreme.
Thailand's greatest natural resource is its land, whose cultivation always has been the economic foundation of the society and a major condition of Thai life and behavior. The country consists of four distinct natural regions, the North (the Chiengmai area), the Northeast (the Korat Plateau), the Central Plain (the Chao Phya River Basin) and the South (the Isthmus leading to the Malayan Peninsula). Among these regions, the Central Plain is the economic, social, cultural and political heartland - the core area on which the country is based. It is more than one-third of the total land area of the whole country, and extends about 200 kilometers north from the Gulf of Thailand, forming a great alluvial plain bisected by the Chao Phya River and crisscrossed by its tributaries as well as by innumerable canals. Its extremely rich soil, constituting about 50% of all cultivated land, is almost one continuous rice paddy in the midst of which resides approximately one-third of the nation's population. With relatively little effort and the employment of only the simplest of agricultural technology, this vast plain produces the largest rice crops in the country, as well as great varieties of fruit.
The North, covering almost 100,000 square kilometers is subdivided into deep alluvial valleys defined by long mountain ridges which run in a north-south direction. Drained by the tributaries of the Chao Phya River, these valleys are rich and easily support substantial rice cultivation as well as cotton, soybeans and peanuts. In addition, the mountain forests of the North are the great suppliers of teak and other kinds of timber, and lend themselves to such types of forest-product industry as resins, gums, tree oils, lac, charcoal, firewood, etc. The mountain soil also has been able to produce a good Virginia-type tobacco. More than one quarter of Thailand's population resides in this region.
The South too is wealthy in natural resources. Its approximately 32,000 square kilometers, jutting out into the Indian Ocean, are relatively mountainous and contain only narrow valleys and a limited cultivable area along the eastern sea coast. The coastal plain has rubber as well as rice, coconut palms, sugar cane and fruit. Approximately one-ninth of the total Thai population resides here.
In contrast to the other three regions, the Northeast has been the country's economically depressed area, constituting approximately one-third of the total land area. Vast sections of the region are desolate and other parts have sandy, poorly drained soil. Cultivation is further complicated by a very inadequate water supply and a short rainy season. This resource-poor area is inhabited by approximately one-third of the population.
Thailand's basically rich agricultural land, extensive forests and substantial tin deposits, are supplemented by fresh water and marine fish resources. Fuel resources are, however, quite limited. Apart from tin, there exist only limited mineral deposits. This is the major natural resource weakness of the country.
1 For more details, see S. CHUMSRIPHAN, The Great Role of Jean-Louis Vey, Apostolic Vicar of Siam (1875-1909), in the Church History of Thailand During the Reformation Period of King Rama V, The Great (1868-1910). Rome, Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana 1990, pp. 1-3. See as well B.C. CASTELLINO, Prathet Thai. Siam di ieri Thailandia di oggi. Roma, LAS 1977, p. 31.
2 Cf Thailand in Transition: The Church in a Buddhist Country, in Pro Mundi Vita 48 (1973) 5.