Far East Kingdoms

Thais (Tai) (South-East Asia)

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The perspective on Thai history has been changed by archaeological excavations in the north-east of the country. Discoveries involving bronze metallurgy seems to suggest, controversially, that the Thais may have originated in Thailand following the initial arrival of Homo sapiens in South-East Asia and later scattered to various parts of Asia, including China. No definite conclusion has been reached, and many more theories have been put forward with some suggesting that Thais were originally of Austronesian rather than Mongoloid origin.

Until recently, the accepted theory was that the Thai people (as a division of the older T'ai or Tai group) originated in north-western China, and migrated south to Thailand around 600 BC. Once there, they split into two main groups; one settled in the north and founded the kingdom of Lan Na, the other settled further south to found the kingdom of Sukhothai. A modern theory suggests that the migration took place in the opposite direction, from Thailand to China and elsewhere. An inwards Hindu migration followed in 300 BC which gave the country a diverse ethnic and cultural background.

Around 2000 BC, Chinese rice and millet farmers spread southwards into a region which stretched between Vietnam and Burma. There, they interbred with local hunter-gatherers in two main pulses, this being the first with the second taking place around the end of the first century BC.

These events and many lesser integrations produced a people who bore a highly mixed ethnic heritage, albeit one which was initially provided by Thai migrants as they pushed southwards into South-East Asia from the eighth century AD kingdom of Nanzhao in south-western China. That movement increased when the Mongols invaded China, entirely sidelining the collected native Akha people (an imposed name which means 'slaves').

In 2017 a team led by Harvard Medical School geneticist, Mark Lipson, concluded that these population movements brought agriculture to the region and triggered the spread of Austroasiatic languages that are still spoken in parts of south and South-East Asia. Over the preceding twenty years, archaeology had already accumulated increasing amounts of evidence to support the emergence of rice farming in South-East Asia between 2,500-2,000 BC, accompanied by tools and pottery which revealed links to southern China.

The modern Thai Rattanakosin kingdom is the main home of ethnic Thais.

(Information by Peter Kessler & John De Cleene, with additional introductory details by Kris Tang, and additional information from the John De Cleene Archive, from A History of Thailand, Chris Baker & Pasuk Phongpaichit (2005), from Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopaedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, Keat Gin Ooi (ABC-Clio, 2004), from Early Mainland Southeast Asia, C Higham (River Books Co, 2014), from Encyclopaedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations, Charles F W Higham (Facts on File, 2004), from Historical Atlas of the World, R R Palmer (Ed, Chicago, 1963), and from External Links: Thai History at sunsite.au.ac.th (dead link), and Ancient Chinese farmers sowed literal seeds of change in south-east Asia (Science News), and The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, George Coedès (Walter F Vella (Ed), Susan Brown Cowing (Trans), University of Hawaii Press, 1968, and available online via the Internet Archive).)

7th-10th century

A Hindu and Buddhist Dvaravati culture predominates in territory that will later form parts of Siam. This culture is thought to consist of the ethnic Mon people.

Tai people (of which Thais form a sub-group) first arrived in the region of today's Thailand around 600 BC, but heavy inwards migration only took place between the eighth to tenth centuries AD

c.AD 1238

The Sukhothai kingdom is founded in the south of today's Thailand.

c.AD 1259

The Lan Na kingdom is founded in the north of today's Thailand.