1.
Khmer Empire
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The Khmer Empire, officially the Angkor Empire, the predecessor state to modern Cambodia, was a powerful Hindu-Buddhist empire in Southeast Asia. The empire, which out of the former kingdoms of Funan and Chenla. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, in present-day Cambodia, which was the site of the city during the empires zenith. Satellite imaging has revealed that Angkor, during its peak in the 11th to 13th centuries, was the largest pre-industrial urban centre in the world, the beginning of the era of the Khmer Empire is conventionally dated to 802 CE. In this year, King Jayavarman II had himself declared chakravartin on Phnom Kulen, the empire ended with the fall of Angkor in the 15th century. The history of Angkor as the area of settlement of the historical kingdom of Kambujadesa is also the history of the Khmer kingdom from the 9th to the 13th centuries. From Kambuja itself — and so also from the Angkor region — no written records have survived other than stone inscriptions, according to Sdok Kok Thom inscription, circa 781 Indrapura was the first capital of Jayavarman II, located in Banteay Prei Nokor, near todays Kompong Cham. He then moved his court northwest to Mahendraparvata, far north from the great lake of Tonle Sap. At that ceremony Prince Jayavarman II was proclaimed a universal monarch or God King and he declared himself Chakravartin, in a ritual taken from the Indian-Hindu tradition. Thereby he not only became the divinely appointed and therefore uncontested ruler, at that time, Sailendras allegedly ruled over Java, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and parts of Cambodia, around the Mekong delta. The first pieces of information on Jayavarman II came from the K.235 stone inscription on a stele in Sdok Kok Thom temple, Isan region, dating to 1053. It recounts two and a half centuries of service members of the temples founding family provided for the Khmer court. This classical theory was revisited by scholars, such as Claude Jacques and Michael Vickery. Moreover, Jayavarmans political career began at Vyadhapura in eastern Cambodia, finally, many early temples on Phnom Kulen shows both Cham and Javanese influences, even if their asymmetric distribution seems typically khmer. He thereby laid the foundation of Angkor, which was to arise some 15 km to the northwest, Jayavarman II died in the year 835 and he was succeeded by his son Jayavarman III. Jayavarman III died in 877 and was succeeded by Indravarman I, the successors of Jayavarman II continually extended the territory of Kambuja. Indravarman I managed to expand the kingdom without wars, and he began extensive building projects, thanks to the wealth gained through trade, foremost were the temple of Preah Ko and irrigation works. Indravarman I developed Hariharalaya further by constructing Bakong circa 881, Bakong in particular bears striking similarity to the Borobudur temple in Java, which strongly suggests that it served as the prototype for Bakong
2.
Champa
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The kingdom was known variously as nagara Campa in the Chamic and Cambodian inscriptions, Chăm Pa in Vietnamese and 占城 in Chinese records. The Chams of modern Vietnam and Cambodia are the remnants of this former kingdom and they speak Chamic languages, a subfamily of Malayo-Polynesian closely related to the Malayic and Bali–Sasak languages. Champa was preceded in the region by a kingdom called Linyi or Lâm Ấp that was in existence from AD192, Champa reached its apogee in the 9th and 10th centuries. Thereafter, it began a gradual decline under pressure from Đại Việt, in 1832, the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mạng annexed the remaining Cham territories. Mỹ Sơn, a religious center, and Hội An. Today, some Cham people adhere to Buddhism, a conversion which was started in 15th century, there are, however, Chams who still retain and preserve their Hindu faith, rituals and festivals. The Balamon Cham are one of two surviving non-Indic indigenous Hindu peoples in the world, with a culture dating back thousands of years. The other is the Hindu Balinese of Indonesia, between the 2nd and the 15th centuries, Champa at times included the modern provinces of Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Bình Định, Phú Yên, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, and Bình Thuận. Historical Champa consisted of up to five principalities, Indrapura was the capital of Champa from about 875 to about 1000 and it was located at the site of the modern village of Dong Duong, near the modern city of Da Nang. The associated port was at modern Hội An, the territory once controlled by this principality included present-day Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, and Thừa Thiên–Huế provinces. Amaravati was located in present-day Quảng Nam Province, the earliest mention of Amaravati is from an 1160 inscription at Po Nagar. Vijaya was located in present-day Bình Định Province, early mention is made of Vijaya in an 1160 inscription at Po Nagar. The capital has been identified with the site at Cha Ban. The associated port was at present-day Qui Nhơn, important excavations have also been conducted at nearby Thap Mam, which may have been a religious and cultural centre. Vijaya became the political and cultural centre of Champa around 1000 and it remained the centre of Champa until 1471, when it was sacked by the Viet and the centre of Champa was again displaced toward the south. In its time, the principality of Vijaya controlled much of present-day Quang-Nam, Quang-Ngai, Bình Định, Kauthara was located in the area of modern Nha Trang in Khánh Hòa Province. Its religious and cultural centre was the temple of Po Nagar, Kauthara is first mentioned in an AD784 inscription at Po Nagar. Panduranga was located in the area of present-day Phan Rang in Ninh Thuận Province, Panduranga was the last of the Cham territories to be annexed by the Vietnamese
3.
Pagan Kingdom
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The Kingdom of Pagan was the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-day Burma. The kingdom grew out of a small 9th-century settlement at Pagan by the Mranma, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Pagan, alongside the Khmer Empire, was one of two main empires in mainland Southeast Asia. The Burmese language and culture became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu, Mon. Theravada Buddhism slowly began to spread to the village level although Tantric, Mahayana, Brahmanic, Pagans rulers built over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Pagan capital zone of which over 2000 remain. The wealthy donated tax-free land to religious authorities and this ushered in a vicious circle of internal disorders and external challenges by the Arakanese, Mons, Mongols and Shans. Repeated Mongol invasions toppled the four-century-old kingdom in 1287, the collapse was followed by 250 years of political fragmentation that lasted well into the 16th century. The origins of the Pagan kingdom have been reconstructed using archaeological evidence as well as the Burmese chronicle tradition, considerable differences exist between the views of modern scholarship and various chronicle narratives. Burmese chronicles do not agree on the origins of the Pagan kingdom, chronicles down to the 18th century trace its origins to 167 CE, when Pyusawhti, a descendant of a solar spirit and a dragon princess, founded the dynasty at Pagan. But the 19th-century Glass Palace Chronicle connects the dynastys origins to the clan of the Buddha, the Glass Palace Chronicle traces the origins of the Pagan kingdom to India during the 9th century BCE, more than three centuries before the Buddha was born. Prince Abhiraja of Kosala of the Sakya clan — the clan of the Buddha — left his homeland with followers in 850 BCE after military defeat by the kingdom of Panchala. They settled at Tagaung in present-day northern Burma and founded a kingdom, the Chronicle does not claim that he had arrived in an empty land, only that he was the first king. The elder son Kanyaza Gyi ventured south, and in 825 BCE founded his own kingdom in what is today Arakan, the younger son Kanyaza Nge succeeded his father, and was followed by a dynasty of 31 kings, and then another dynasty of 17 kings. Some three and a half later, in 483 BCE, scions of Tagaung founded yet another kingdom much farther down the Irrawaddy at Sri Ksetra. Sri Ksetra lasted nearly six centuries, and was succeeded in turn by the kingdom of Pagan, the Glass Palace Chronicle goes on to relate that around 107 CE, Thamoddarit, nephew of the last king of Sri Ksetra, founded the city of Pagan. The site reportedly was visited by the Buddha himself during his lifetime, Thamoddarit was followed by a caretaker, and then Pyusawhti in 167 CE. The chronicle narratives then merge, and agree that a dynasty of kings followed Pyusawhti, king Pyinbya fortified the city in 849 CE. They doubted the antiquity of the tradition, and dismissed the possibility that any sort of civilisation in Burma could be much older than 500 CE. The Abhiraja myth notwithstanding, more recent research indicate that many of the places mentioned in the royal records have indeed been inhabited continuously for at least 3500 years
4.
Srivijaya
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Srivijaya was a dominant thalassocratic city-state based on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 8th to the 12th century, Srivijaya was the first unified kingdom to dominate much of Malay archipelago. In Sanskrit, śrī means fortunate, prosperous, or happy, the earliest reference to it dates from the 7th century. A Tang Chinese monk, Yijing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 CE for six months, the earliest known inscription in which the name Srivijaya appears also dates from the 7th century in the Kedukan Bukit inscription found near Palembang, Sumatra, dated 16 June 682 CE. Between the late 7th and early 11th century, Srivijaya rose to become a hegemon in Southeast Asia and it was involved in close interactions, often rivalries, with the neighbouring Java, Kambuja and Champa. Srivijayas main foreign interest was nurturing lucrative trade agreements with China which lasted from the Tang to the Song dynasty, Srivijaya had religious, cultural and trade links with the Buddhist Pala of Bengal, as well as with the Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East. The kingdom ceased to exist in the 13th century by various factors, including the expansion of the rival Javanese Singhasari, after Srivijaya fell, it was largely forgotten. It was not until 1918 that French historian George Cœdès, of École française dExtrême-Orient, little physical evidence of Srivijaya remains. There had been no continuous knowledge of the history of Srivijaya even in Indonesia, Cœdès noted that the Chinese references to Sanfoqi, previously read as Sribhoja, and the inscriptions in Old Malay refer to the same empire. The Buddhist pilgrim Yijings account is important on describing Srivijaya. The 7th-century siddhayatra inscriptions discovered in Palembang and Bangka island are also vital primary historical sources, also, regional accounts that some might be almost tales and legends, such as the Legend of the Maharaja of Javaka and the Khmer King also provides a glimpse of the kingdom. Besides, some Indian and Arabic accounts also describes vaguely about the riches, Srivijaya had become a symbol of early Sumatran importance as a great empire to balance Javas Majapahit in the east. Srivijaya, and by extension Sumatra, had been known by different names to different peoples, the Chinese called it Sanfoqi or Che-li-fo-che, and there was an even older kingdom of Kantoli, which could be considered the predecessor of Srivijaya. Sanskrit and Pali texts referred to it as Yavades and Javadeh, the Arabs called it Zabag or Sribuza and the Khmers called it Melayu. While the Javanese called them Suvarnabhumi, Suvarnadvipa or Malayu and this is another reason why the discovery of Srivijaya was so difficult. While some of names are strongly reminiscent of the name of Java. According to the Kedukan Bukit inscription, dated 605 Saka, Srivijaya was first established in the vicinity of todays Palembang and it mentions that Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa came from Minanga Tamwan. The exact location of Minanga Tamwan is still a subject of discussion, the Palembang theory as the place where Srivijaya was first established was presented by Cœdes and supported by Pierre-Yves Manguin
5.
Hinduism
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Hinduism is a religion, or a way of life, found most notably in India and Nepal. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no founder. This Hindu synthesis started to develop between 500 BCE and 300 CE following the Vedic period, although Hinduism contains a broad range of philosophies, it is linked by shared concepts, recognisable rituals, cosmology, shared textual resources, and pilgrimage to sacred sites. Hindu texts are classified into Shruti and Smriti and these texts discuss theology, philosophy, mythology, Vedic yajna, Yoga, agamic rituals, and temple building, among other topics. Major scriptures include the Vedas and Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include the four Puruṣārthas, the proper goals or aims of human life, namely Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha, karma, samsara, and the various Yogas. Hindu practices include such as puja and recitations, meditation, family-oriented rites of passage, annual festivals. Some Hindus leave their world and material possessions, then engage in lifelong Sannyasa to achieve Moksha. Hinduism prescribes the eternal duties, such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, Hinduism is the worlds third largest religion, with over one billion followers or 15% of the global population, known as Hindus. The majority of Hindus reside in India, Nepal, Mauritius, the Caribbean, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan/Sanskrit word Sindhu, the Indo-Aryan name for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. The term Hindu in these ancient records is a geographical term, the Arabic term al-Hind referred to the people who live across the River Indus. This Arabic term was taken from the pre-Islamic Persian term Hindū. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as an alternative name of India. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus. The term Hinduism, then spelled Hindooism, was introduced into the English language in the 18th-century to denote the religious, philosophical, because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult. The religion defies our desire to define and categorize it, Hinduism has been variously defined as a religion, a religious tradition, a set of religious beliefs, and a way of life. From a Western lexical standpoint, Hinduism like other faiths is appropriately referred to as a religion, in India the term dharma is preferred, which is broader than the western term religion. Hindu traditionalists prefer to call it Sanatana Dharma, the study of India and its cultures and religions, and the definition of Hinduism, has been shaped by the interests of colonialism and by Western notions of religion. Since the 1990s, those influences and its outcomes have been the topic of debate among scholars of Hinduism, Hinduism as it is commonly known can be subdivided into a number of major currents
6.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
7.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
8.
History of Thailand
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Thai people, who originally lived in southwestern China, migrated into mainland Southeast Asia over a period of many centuries. Siam may have originated from the Sanskrit śyāma dark, referring to the skin colour of its native people. Chinese, 暹羅, pinyin, Xiānluó was the name for the kingdom centred on Sukhothai and Sawankhalok, but to the Thai themselves. The countrys designation as Siam by Westerners likely came from the Portuguese, Portuguese chronicles noted that the Borommatrailokkanat, king of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, sent an expedition to the Malacca Sultanate at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula in 1455. Following their conquest of Malacca in 1511, the Portuguese sent a mission to Ayutthaya. A century later, on 15 August 1612, The Globe, by the end of the 19th century, Siam had become so enshrined in geographical nomenclature that it was believed that by this name and no other would it continue to be known and styled. Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, the Khmer Empire and Malay states of the Malay Peninsula, the Thai established their own states, Ngoenyang, the Sukhothai Kingdom, the Kingdom of Chiang Mai, Lan Na and the Ayutthaya Kingdom. These states fought each other and were under constant threat from the Khmers, Burma, after the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand endured sixty years of almost permanent military rule before the establishment of a democratically elected-government system. In 2014 there was yet another coup détat, prior to the southwards migration of the Tai peoples from Yunnan in the 10th century, mainland Southeast Asia had been a home to various indigenous communities for thousands of years. The recent discovery of Homo erectus fossils such as Lampang man is an example of archaic hominids, the remains were first discovered during excavations in Lampang Province. The finds have dated from roughly 1,000, 000–500,000 years ago in the Pleistocene. Stone artefacts dating to 40,000 years ago have been recovered from, e. g. Tham Lod rockshelter in Mae Hong Son and Lang Rongrien Rockshelter in Krabi, peninsular Thailand. The archaeological data between 18, 000–3,000 years ago primarily derive from cave and rock shelter sites, there are many sites in Thailand dating to the Bronze and Iron Ages. The most thoroughly researched of these sites are in the countrys northeast, especially in the Mun, the Mun River in particular is home to many moated sites composed of mounds surrounded by ditches and ramparts. The mounds contain evidence of prehistoric occupation, some trading settlements show evidence of trade with the Roman Empire, a Roman gold coin showing Roman emperor Antoninus Pius has been found in southern Thailand. Prior to the arrival of the Thai people and culture into what is now Thailand, however, little is known about Thailand before the 13th century, as the literary and concrete sources are scarce and most of the knowledge about this period is gleaned from archaeological evidence. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, starting with the Kingdom of Funan around the first century until the Khmer Empire. E. A. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Thailand from India at the time of the Indian emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire, later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire
9.
Prehistoric Thailand
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Prehistoric Thailand may be traced back as far as 1,000,000 years ago from the fossils and stone tools found in northern and western Thailand. At an archaeological site in Lampang, northern Thailand Homo erectus fossils, Lampang Man, Stone tools have been widely found in Kanchanaburi, Ubon Ratchathani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, and Lopburi. Prehistoric cave paintings have also found in these regions, dating back 10,000 years. The Lower Palaeolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age and it spans the time from around 2. The earliest hominids, known as Homo erectus and recognisable as human, locally typified by the fossil, Lampang Man. About 1,000,000 years ago, Homo erectus moved to Asia from Africa and its use and control of fire was an important tool in its hunter-gatherer means of subsistence. Homo erectuss skull was smaller and thicker than that of human beings. It lived in the mouth of caves near streams or other water supplies and its main natural enemies included the giant hyena Hyaena senesis, the sabre-toothed tiger, the orang-utan, and the giant panda. In 1999, Somsak Pramankit claimed to have found fragments of Homo erectus in Ko Kha, Lampang. It was comparable to the fossils of Sangiran II Man found in Java. Stone artefacts dating to 40,000 years ago have been found at Tham Lod Rockshelter in Mae Hong Son, modern Thais are not descendants of Lampang Man. The Neolithic or New Stone Age was a period in the development of technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. At the Khao Toh Chong rockshelter in Krabi archaeologists have evidence of a change in diet leading up to domestication due to changes in sea levels. Recent archaeological excavations suggests that domesticated rice was introduced to central Thailand by immigrating rice farming societies about 4000 B. P, Neolithic culture appeared in many parts of Thailand, Mae Hong Son, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Ratchasima, Ubon Ratchathani about 9000 BCE. People pioneered wild cereal use, which evolved into true farming. For peninsular Thailand evidence of rice agriculture exists from 2500 -2200 B. P, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery. In Southeast Asia, the independent domestication events led to their own regionally-distinctive Neolithic cultures which arose completely independent of those in parts of the world. Spirit Cave Spirit Cave is a site in Pang Mapha District, Mae Hong Son Province
10.
Peopling of Thailand
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The peopling of Thailand refers to the process by which the ethnic groups that comprise the population of present-day Thailand came to inhabit the region. The result is a diverse population of distantly related tribes with a common Asian heritage steeped in ancient tradition. The Sayams are a tribe of southern Thailand, who make their home on the Malay Peninsula. Although they now speak a Mon–Khmer language, they are not a Mon–Khmer people, the Mani are the only Negrito people living in Thailand. This was proven when the Thai and Australian governments conducted DNA tests on them, the Negritos are among the least-known of all living human groups, and their origin is much debated. The Malay name for them is orang asli, or original people and they are most likely descendants of the indigenous populations of the Sunda landmass and New Guinea, predating the Mongoloid and Australoid peoples who later entered Southeast Asia. Regardless of the theory of origin, geographically speaking, they came to Thailand via the lower portion of the Malay Peninsula. The Mon–Khmer ethnicities were among the earliest aboriginal populations in Southeast Asia, comparative linguistics reveals that the Mon–Khmer are of Austroasiatic descent. The coastal immigration theory suggests that the Mon–Khmer probably first entered Thailand from the Malaysia, also, in early days, the Austroasiatic were a hunter-gatherer civilization, a lifestyle which lends itself to continuous migration. Since the Mon–Khmer were aboriginal to the region, there is great diversity among the individual ethnic groups. In fact, there are at least 15 distinct Mon–Khmer ethnic groups who make their home in Thailand today and these groups have resided within Thailand for thousands of years, with the possible exception of the Pearic peoples who are indigenous to neighboring Cambodia. The Malayic migrations to Thailand took place over a vast expanse of time, the Mon–Khmer probably inhabited the Malay Peninsula prior to or contemporaneous with the Malay people, but long before the Tai came into the region. They were part of an earlier Austronesian ethnicity originating on the Island of Formosa, the earliest Tai settlements in Thailand were along the river valleys in along the northern border of the country. Eventually, the Tai settled the plains of Thailand and displaced and inter-bred with the pre-existing Austroasiatic population. The languages and culture of the Tai eventually came to dominate the regions of both modern-day Laos and Thailand, in more recent times, many of the Tai tribes of Laos also migrated west across the border establishing communities in Thailand. The Laotian Tai ethnic groups, often referred to as the Lao, are clustered in the Isan region of Thailand. Prior to living in mainland China, the Tai are thought to have migrated from a homeland on the island of Taiwan, the coming of the Han Chinese to this part of southern China may have prompted the Tai to migrate once again. This time they went over the mountains of southern China into Southeast Asia through the mountains of Burma, the Tai ethnic groups are believed to have begun migrating south from China to Southeast Asia during the first millennium CE
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