+Tai

  • Aka Shan, Dai, Yai.

Influx

  • “According to linguistic and other historical evidence, the southwestward migration of Tai-speaking tribes from Guangxi took place sometime between the 8th-10th centuries. "
  • “The Tais from the north gradually settled in the Chao Phraya valley from the tenth century onwards, in lands of the Dvaravati culture, assimilating the earlier Austroasiatic Mon and Khmer people, as well as coming into contact with the Khmer Empire. The Tais who came to the area of present-day Thailand were engulfed into the Theravada Buddhism of the Mon and the Hindu-Khmer culture and statecraft. Therefore, the Thai culture is a mixture of Tai traditions with Indic, Mon, and Khmer influences.”
  • For Tai Ahom influx, see Ahom article.
  • For Tai Shan influence, see bamar article.

Kingdoms

  • “Around 757 CE, Khun Saiphong, one of the sons of legendary progenitor Khun Borom, obliged his people to follow him from northern Myanmar across the Salween to this region. The title Khun before his name marks his status as a ruler of a fortified town and its surrounding villages, together called a mueang.”
  • The Kingdom of Hiran or Ngoenyang existed from the 7th through 13th centuries AD in the northern tip of Thailand.
  • Lan Na Kingdom/ Lannathai was an Indianized state centered in present-day Northern Thailand from the 13th to 18th centuries. King Mangrai, the 17th king of Ngoenyang founded it.
  • “The Lavo Kingdom, which was the center of Khmer culture in Chao Phraya valley, was also the rallying point for the Thais.”
  • “In the mid-13th century, the Tai tribes led by Pho Khun Bangklanghao / Sri Indradit rebelled against the Khmer governor at Sukhodaya and established Sukhothai as an independent Tai state and remained the center of Tai power until the end of the fourteenth century. … To the south, Ramkamhaeng subjugated the kingdom of Supannabhum and Sri Thamnakorn (Tambralinga) and, through Tambralinga, adopted Theravada as state religion.”
  • “The Thai were called “Siam” by the Angkorians and they appeared on the bas relief at Angkor Wat as a part of the army of Lavo Kingdom. Sometimes the Thai chiefdoms in the Chao Phraya valley were put under the Angkorian control under strong monarchs (including Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII) but they were mostly independent.”
  • The Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang Hom Khao existed as a unified kingdom from 1353 to 1707.
  • “A new city-state known as Ayutthaya was founded by Ramathibodi and emerged as the center of the growing Thai empire starting in 1350. Inspired by the then Hindu-based Khmer Empire, the Ayutthayan empire’s continued conquests led to more Thai settlements as the Khmer empire weakened after their defeat at Angkor in 1431.”
  • “Other peoples living under Thai rule, mainly Mon, Khmer, and Lao, as well as Chinese, Indian or Muslim immigrants continued to be assimilated by Thais, but at the same time they influenced Thai culture, philosophy, economy and politics.”

Religion

  • The Thais’ folk belief however is a syncretic blend of the official Buddhist teachings, animistic elements that trace back to the original beliefs of Tai peoples, and Brahmin-Hindu elements from India, partly inherited from the Hindu Khmer Empire of Angkor.