Thread: Thai history??

^ Cheers. Looks interesting.

Once you click the link, look to the top right of the page and you will find a black covered book by Paul M Handley. Think it is unavailable in Thailand but well worth a read (in the comfort of your own home/on your own) if you can get your hands on it.

Here are a couple of other books.

The first is really a history of Laos, but has many references to Thailand, Kampuchea and Vietnam etc. It also spans from the year dot to late 1960's.

"LAOS Buffer State or Battleground" by HUGH TOYE

The second is a study of a village in Vietnam. Very comprehensive on all aspects of village life and although Vietnamese focused many of the observations can be observed in Thai village life.

"Village in Vietnam" by Gerald Hickey

Both are available as pdf's online.

It is highly unlikely that you're gonna find anything resembling the "real history of this country" in a book written by a Thai, whether it's in English or Thai..
By the "real history" I mean;

• who these people were before they meandered down here,
• where did they come from,
• why did they leave where they were,
• who ruled almost the entire country when they did wander down here, etc

These people are some of the most creative and selective history "re-tellers or re-counters" I've ever met.. To talk to some of them you'd think what is modern day thailand was totally vacant land, and they (the thais) were "beamed" directly here from the "mothership"..

I think the place to start is the rise and fall of the Angkor Empire, which was the people who ruled and controlled this place long before the thais wandered down out of the hills of S/W China.

Why do you think there are so many old ruins of Khmer influenced architecture in thailand. It ain't because the thais liked that style of building, it's because that's who ruled this place when the thais got here.

WHy do you think there're so many Thai words of Khmer orgin in the Thai language of today? It's because it was the language of the "ruling class" when the thais got here.

Here's a map of the Angkor Empire in it's hey day. It would appear after the Thais left the hills in China, that they came here, and basically carved out the entire country for themselves as the Angkor empire declined.





Pretty much Thai history isn't all that much different from US history. Europeans came to the New World and stole the entire country from the indigenous people.

Now try to get a Thai to believe that's how they ended up with Thailand is like pushing a frickin' rope. They are some of the most self-entitled and self important people I've ever met about their "history".. Now granted, being an American, I am self-entitled and self important to a fault too, but at least I own the "history of my country".

What studying buddhism hasta do with Thai history is beyond me as that religion sure didn't start here. Still Good luck to the O/P in their quest for knowledge, not that at the end of the day it'll do them all that good.