'Siam' or 'Sayam' was a derivative of a Sankrit word, meaning roughly, 'golden yellow' or, or just possibly, 'green'. Either would make sense: there are gold mines, gold-leaf in architecture and worship is ubiquitous; and green, outside the capital of Bangkok, is evident in the mordancy of the country.
Modern Thailand's origins are so ancient they have been lost in the mists of time – even the origins of her people are an ongoing controversy – though archaeological evidence is constantly being unearthed that extends the borders of knowledge.
However, much of what has been unearthed in recent times just adds to the puzzle.
The meaning of Thai is 'free' – hence Thailand, 'Land of the Free'. In 1867, the Briish envoy, Sir John Bowring, divides it into five major periods, these are:
During Nanchao Period, the predecessors of today's Thais, founded a powerful kingdom, in southern China in the area around today's Yunnan, Kwangsi and Canton.
Later many of these people, of the Nanchao Kingdom as it was called, migrated south into the Chao Phya Basin.
The date of this migration has not been determined to general satisfaction and may well have involved at least two separate migrations. One of these, south-west from China, took waves of Thai into today's central plains where they became subject to the Khmers. Suffice to say that all the migrations probably occurred over many centuries.
Then, in 1238 the Thai founded their own independent state of Sukhothai – Sukhothai translates as 'The Dawn of Happiness'. As a cross-reference, this was the period of the Sung Dynasty in China and the European Crusades to the Holy Land.
The Sukhothai period marked the Thais as a distinct people, and the Sukhothai period is remembered as a Camelot-like kingdom, where there was enormous cultural development with the Thais absorbing elements of various civilizations with which they had, and were, making contact.
They maintained relations with China, bringing in Chinese craftsmen who established the pottery works at Sawankhalok on the trade route. The Thais also had contact with india and were strongly influenced by Indian art, as can be seen in the ruins of Sukhothai today. From Cambodia came elements of the adopted administrative system, and architecture; and one of the most famous Thai kings, Ramkamhaeng the Great, introduced the Thai alphabet, in 1283.
The Ayutthaya Period began when the 400-year Sukhothai period collapsed. Contemporaneous with China's Ming Dynasty and the Shogunate of Japan, it is often sub-divided into five periods.
The first, the U-thong Period was one where Ayutthaya established sovereignty over neighboring Thai communities.
The second period, from 1409 – 1533, saw Ayutthaya further extend its influence by annexation, especially in Thailand's north.
The third period, from 1533 – 1605, was one of wars, especially wars with Burma. In 1569 Burma conquered Siam and held the country for 15 years, until in 1584, the Thai monarch, Naresuan the Great liberated the country and obtained for its most extensive limits.
The 17th century saw Siam begin its diplomatic and commercial contact with the West. Phra Chao Prasat Thong (1630 – 1655) founded a new dynasty during which foreigners – in particular Europeans – began to trade with Siam. During this, the fourth period, Siamese ambassadors were sent to the French king, Louis XIV.
The fifth period was Ayutthaya's decline, with Burma finally sacking Ayuttaya in April, 1767.
During the Thonburi period, almost inerrenum, period, contemporary to American War of independence, one, Taksin, gathered the remnants of the Siamese army, drove away the Burmese, and established a new capital at Thonburi, on the west bank of the Chao Phya River, - directly opposite Bangkok.
Seized by religious delusions, he apparently went completely mad, was beaten to death by sandalwood clubs in a velvet bag, and one of his generals, Chao Phya Chakri, proclaimed himself king and founded a new capital – Bangkok was born.
The Chakri Dynasty has reigned in Thailand since 1782.
Because of French diplomatic intrigues, foreign diplomats were barred from Thailand from 1688. King Rama II reopened treaty relations with the West in the early 19th century.
King Mongkut, or Rama IV, was one of the greatest of Thai monarchs, indeed one of the most enlightened and able in the world. His reign has been likened to a bridge spanning 'the old and the new': he was the first Thai monarch to be well-versed in technology.
And his was a world where many countries were being won and lost in a series of wars. But he kept Siam out of others' ambit's, and his son, Rama V, abolished slavery, improved the public welfare and administration system, and Thailand prospered.
In the reign of Kind Rama VII, Thailand changed from being an Absolute to a Constitutional Monarchy. It occurred in 1932.
The country's present King, Bhumibol Adulyadej, became Thailand's longest reigning monarch and is also the worlds longest reigning monarch. He and his wife, Queen Sirikit, are revered by the Thais not least for their interest in, and funding of countless projects to assist them, and well-known throughout the world.
