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THAI
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
The Thai (or Tai) 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. They are also known as Thailanders. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Tai-Kadai family of languages, and the majority of Thai are followers of Theravada Buddhism.
Origin of the Tai
Comparative linguistic research seems to indicate that the Tai people were a proto Tai-Kadai speaking culture of southern China, and that they may have originally been of Austronesian descent. Prior to inhabiting mainland China, the Tai are suspected to have migrated from a homeland on the island of Taiwan where they spoke a dialect of Proto-Austronesian or one of its descendant languages. After the arrival of Sino-Tibetan speaking ethnic groups from mainland China to the island of Taiwan, the Tai would have then migrated into mainland China, perhaps along the Pearl River, where their language greatly changed in character from the other Austronesian languages under influence of Sino-Tibetan and Hmong-Mien language infusion. The coming of the Han Chinese to this region of southern China may have prompted the Tai to migrate in mass once again, this time southward over the mountains into Southeast Asia. While this theory of the origin of the Tai is currently the leading theory, there is insufficient archaeological evidence to prove or disprove the proposition at this time, and the linguistic evidence alone is not conclusive. However, in further support of the theory, it is believed that the O1 Y-DNA haplogroup is associated with both the Austronesian people and the Tai. The prevalence of Y-DNA Haplogroup O1 among Austronesian and Tai peoples also suggests a common ancestry with the Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic and Hmong-Mien peoples some 35,000 years ago in China. Y-DNA Haplogroup O1 is a subclade of O Y-DNA haplogroup, which itself is a clade of Y-DNA Haplogroup K, a genetic mutation that is believed to have originated 40,000 somewhere between Iran and Central China. In addition to the ethnicities previously mentioned, the progenitor of Haplogroup K was probably the ancestor of nearly all modern Melanesian people and Native Americans. Haplogroup K, in turn, is a subclade of Y-DNA Haplogroup F, which is believed to have originated in Northern Africa or Southwest Asia some 45,000 years ago. Haplogroup F is believed to be associated with the second major wave of migration out of the African continent. In addition to the ethnicities previously mentioned, the progenator of Haplogroup F was probably the ancestor of all Indo-Europeans.
Demographics of Thailand
population is relatively homogeneous. More than 85% speak a Thai language and share a common culture. This core population includes the central Thai (33.7% of the population, including Bangkok), Northeastern Thai or Lao (34.2%), northern Thai (18.8%), and southern Thai (13.3%).
The language of the central Thai population is the language taught in schools and used in government. Several other small Tai groups include the Shan, Lue, and Phutai.
Up to 14% of Thai are of significant Chinese heritage, but the Sino-Thai community is the best integrated in Southeast Asia. Malay-speaking Muslims of the south comprise another significant minority group (2.3%). Other groups include the Khmer; the Mon, who are substantially assimilated with the Thai; and the Vietnamese. Smaller mountain-dwelling tribes, such as the Hmong and Mein, as well as the Karen, number about 788,024.
Thailand is also home to a significant number of registered foreigners from Asia, Europe, and North America, as well as an estimated several hundred thousand illegal immigrants. Thailand's population is so large, however, that they still form an insignificant percentage of the total population.
Tai-Kadai Languages
The Tai-Kadai languages, also known as Kadai or Kradai, are a tonal language family found in Southeast Asia and southern China. They were formerly considered to be part of the Sino-Tibetan family, but are now classified as an independent family. It is sometimes suggested that they are related to the Austronesian language family, in a family called "Austro-Tai", or even part of a larger Austric superfamily. However, proposals for the Austric relationship do not conform to the comparative method.
Roger Blench suggests that, if the more limited Austro-Tai connection is valid, the relationship is unlikely to be one of two sister families, as has traditionally been proposed. Rather, he suggests that the Kadai languages may be a branch of Austronesian that migrated from the Philippines to Hainan, and from there spread to mainland China, where the Daic branch of Kadai was "radically restructured" under the influence of the Hmong-Mien languages and Chinese.
A recent proposal by Laurent Sagart, which may have some support from human population genetics, is that the proto-Tai-Kadai language was fundamentally an early Austronesian language that may have back-migrated from northeastern Taiwan to the southeastern coast of China thousands of years ago, subsequent to the migration of a pre-Austronesian population or populations from coastal East China to the island of Taiwan and the evolution of the proto-Austronesian language on that island. The apparently cognate forms in Tai-Kadai and Austronesian could then be explained as either commonly inherited vocabulary or prehistoric loanwords from this hypothetical and unknown (but perhaps proto-Malayo-Polynesian-related) Austronesian language into proto-Tai-Kadai. Sagart also suggests that the Austronesian language family (of which he claims proto-Tai-Kadai is one subgroup) is ultimately related to the Sino-Tibetan languages and probably has its origin in a Neolithic community of the coastal regions of prehistoric North China or East China.
The diversity of the Tai-Kadai languages in southeastern China suggests that this is close to their homeland. The Tai branch moved south into Southeast Asia only in historic times, founding the nations that later became Thailand and Laos in what had been Austroasiatic territory.
History of Thailand
The earliest mention of the Thai, as a nation in south China call NAN-JOA (Nanchao or Nanman), comes from Chinese records dating back to the sixth century BCE. These early Thai emanated out of the Yunnan region and dispersed into the general area of what is today Thailand. These Thai peoples arrived in various waves and displaced the earlier native Mon and Khmer populations as they settled the region with a large group settling in Thailand during the Sung period of China roughly around 960 CE. The related Lao people split off from the early Tai-Kadai peoples and moved into Southeast Asia, mainly Laos, while another kindred people, the Shan, made their way into Myanmar.
The founding of the Sukhothai kingdom culminated in the emergence of the first Thai nation-state founded in 1238. Various conflicts in the Chinese-dominated region of Nanchao facilitated increased migration of the Thai, especially mercenaries fleeing from the Mongol conquest of China, and helped establish the Thai as a regional power. Successful wars with the Mon helped to establish the kingdom of Lan Na as the Thai increased their hold in Southeast Asia. The early Thai brought their Buddhist and Chinese traditions, but also assimilated much of the native Khmer and Mon culture of Southeast Asia.
A new city-state known as Ayutthaya, named after the Indian city of Ayodhya, 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 (Cambodia), the Ayutthaya Empire's continued conquests led to more Thai settlements as the Khmer Empire weakened after their defeat at Angkor in 1444. During this period, the Thai developed a feudal system as various vassal states paid homage to the Thai kings. Even as Thai power expanded at the expense of the Mon and Khmer, the Thai Ayutthaya faced setbacks at the hands of the Malay at Malacca and were checked by the Toungoo of Burma.
Though sporadic wars continued with the Burmese and other neighbors, Chinese wars with Burma and European intervention elsewhere in Southeast Asia allowed the Thai to develop an independent course by trading with the Europeans as well as playing the major powers against each other in order to remain independent. The Chakkri dynasty under Rama I held the Burmese at bay, while Rama II and Rama III helped to shape much of Thai society, but also led to Thai setbacks as the Europeans moved into areas surrounding modern Thailand and curtailed any claims the Thai had over Cambodia, in dispute with Burma and Vietnam. The Thai learned from European traders and diplomats, while maintaining an independent course. Chinese, Malay, and British influences helped to further shape the Thai people who often assimilated foreign ideas, but managed to preserve much of their culture and resisted the European colonization that engulfed their neighbors. Thailand is also the only country that was not colonized in Southeastern Asia area in the early history.
Culture and Society
The Thai can be broken down into various regional groups including the main Thai, northeastern, northern, and southern Thai with their own regional dialects of their mutually intelligible Thai language. Modern Central Thai has become more dominant due to official government policy which was designed to assimilate and unify the disparate Thai in spite of ethnolinguistic and cultural ties between the northeastern Thai and the Lao for example. The Thai written language or Thai alphabet developed shortly after the conquest at Angkor, suggesting that it was adopted from the Khmer.
The modern Thai are predominantly Theravada Buddhist and strongly identify their ethnic identity with their religious beliefs that include aspects of ancestor worship. Some of modern Thai literature are Sanskrit base borrowed via the Khmers and Mon cultures, while ethnically the Thai are mostly linked to the southern Chinese. Indigenous arts include Muay Thai (kick boxing), Thai dance, and Nang Yai (shadow play). Thai cuisine tends to be quite eclectic and resembles the foods of neighboring countries of Burma, Laos, and Cambodia.
The Thai have a high literacy rate hovering at 90% and a strong predilection towards education and national development.
Ethnic Groups in Thailand
Thailand is a multi-ethnic country with many distinct ethnic groups, including the majority Thai/Lao and numerous hill tribes living primarily in the mountains of the north. Together, the Thai and Lao make up approximately 75% of the nation's population of approximately 63 million.
Thailand's population is relatively homogeneous, with more than 85% speaking a Tai language and sharing a common culture. This core population includes the central Thai (33.7% of the population, including Bangkok), Northeastern Thai or Lao (34.2%), northern Thai (18.8%), and southern Thai (13.3%).
Map of Thailand
