Thesaban
Thesaban are the municipalities of Thailand. There are three levels of municipalities: city and sub-district. Bangkok and Pattaya are special municipal entities not included in the thesaban system; the municipalities assume some of the responsibilities which are assigned to the districts or communes for non-municipal areas. This devolution of central government powers grew out of the Sukhaphiban sanitary districts first created in Bangkok by a royal decree of King Chulalongkorn in 1897; the thesaban system was established in the Thesaban Organization Act of 1934, has been updated several times since, starting with the Thesaban Act of 1939, replaced by the Thesaban Act of 1953. The 1953 act was most amended by the Thesaban Act of 2003. Thesaban nakhon is translated as "city municipality". To qualify for city status a municipality needs to have a population of at least 50,000 and sufficient income to carry out the tasks of a city; when first organized in 1934, the minimum qualifications for city status were a population of 30,000 with a density of 1,000 per km².
In 1939 the required population density was increased to 2,000 per km², along with the addition of a financial requirement. In 1953 the population density requirement was again raised, to 3,000 per km², before being removed in 2000. For 22 years, from 1972 to 1994, as well as between March and November 1936, there was only one city municipality in Thailand, Chiang Mai, as in 1972 Bangkok had been changed from city municipality, to special governed district; until 1972 there were three city municipalities: Chiang Mai, Phra Nakhon, Thonburi. In 1994, Nakhon Si Thammarat town municipality became the second city municipality of Thailand, the third in the south. Thesaban mueang is translated as "town municipality". For a municipality to qualify as a town, it either needs to be a provincial capital, or have a population of at least 10,000 and sufficient income to cover the tasks of a town; when first organized in 1934, minimum qualification for town status was a population of 3,000 with a density of 1,000 per km².
In 1939 requirements were increased to a population of 5,000 with a density of 2,000 per km², plus a financial criterion. In 1953, the minimum population requirements was raised to the present value. Thesaban tambon, the lowest level municipal unit, is translated as "sub-district municipality". Despite the name, it may not cover the same area as a sub-district. For an area to qualify as a thesaban tambon, it must have a gross income of at least 5 million baht and a population of at least 5,000 with a minimum density of 1,500 per km², plus the approval of the population within that area. Many of today's thesaban municipalities were sukhaphiban tambon, sanitation districts, the number of which had grown to 35 in 1935, when these were converted into municipalities. New sanitary districts were again established starting in 1952. With the Act to Upgrade Sanitary Districts to Thesaban of May 1999 all were converted in May 1999, though many of them did not meet the criteria above. Mueang, Thailand Section List of cities in Thailand by population List of cities in Thailand Subdivisions of Thailand History of administrative reforms http://www.tessaban.com
Phrae Province
Phrae is one of the northern provinces of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Phayao, Uttaradit and Lampang. Phrae is in the valley of the Yom River; the Phi Pan Nam Range runs across the province from north to south in the west. The Phlueng Range is in the east; the history of Phrae dates back to the Haripunchai kingdom of the Mon. It became part of the Lan Na in 1443. Provincial seal: According to legend the two cities of Phrae and Nan were once ruled by brothers; when they met to divide the land between them the one from Phrae rode on a horse, the one from Nan on a buffalo to the meeting point on top of a mountain. Hence Phrae uses a horse in their seal; when the provincial government proposed the seal in 1940, the Fine Arts Department suggested adding a historic building to the seal in addition to the horse, thus it now has the stupa of Phra Tat Cho Hae on the back of the horse. This temple is about nine kilometers southeast of the city of Phrae; the provincial flower and tree is the Burmese Almondwood.
The province is divided into eight districts. These are further subdivided into 645 villages; the main road through Phrae is Route 101, which begins in Nan to the north, passes through Phrae, leads to Sawankhalok and Kamphaeng Phet. Phrae Airport is a small airport in Mueang Mo, on the east side of town, it handles only domestic flights from Don Mueang. Wiang Kosai National Park contains two waterfalls, the Mae Koeng Luang, the Mae Koeng Noi. Streams from the falls flow into the Yom River. Tham Pha Nang Khoi Cave. At the end of the cave is a stalagmite shaped like a woman holding a small child. In front of the Nang Koi stone is a heart-shaped stalactite, they are the source of the legend of the love of a woman who waited for her lover until she turned to stone. Mae Yom National Park Phrae travel guide from WikivoyagePhrae Province website Phrae provincial map, coat of arms and postal stamp Archived October 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Knowledge of Encyclopediathai Travel & Country Guides Welcome to Phrae Province
Ubon Ratchathani
Ubon Ratchathani is both a city and a province in Thailand. For the province, see Ubon Ratchathani province. Ubon Ratchathani is one of the four major cities of Isan known as the "big four of Isan"; the city is on the Mun River in the southeast of the Isan region of Thailand. It is known as Ubon for short; the name means'royal lotus city'. The provincial seal leaves in a circular frame. Ubon was the administrative centre of Ubon Ratchathani Province; as of 2006, the Ubon urban area had a population of about 200,000. This included 85,000 in Thetsaban Nakhon Ubon Ratchathani, 30,000 each in Thetsaban Mueang Warin Chamrap and Thetsaban Tambon Kham Yai, 24,000 in Thetsaban Tambon Saen Suk, 10,000 in each of Thetsaban Tambon Pathum and Tambon Kham Nam Saep, 6,000 in Thetsaban Tambon Ubon. Ubon Ratchathani is 615 km from Bangkok; the city was founded in the late 18th century by Thao Kham Phong, descendant of Phra Wo and Phra Ta, who escaped from King Siribunsan of Vientiane into Siam Kingdom during the reign of King Taksin the Great.
Thao Kham Phong was appointed to be "Phra Pathum Wongsa" and the first ruler of Ubon Ratchathani. In 1792 Ubon Ratchathani became a province, was the administrative center of the monthon Isan; until 1972 Ubon Ratchathani was the largest province of Thailand by area. Yasothon Province was split off from Ubon Ratchathani Province in 1972, followed by Amnat Charoen Province in 1993. Ubon Ratchathani Province now ranks the fifth in area. Ubon Ratchathani sits on the north bank of the Mun River; the south bank of the river is occupied by the suburb of Warin Chamrap, incorporated into the city. The city was attacked by French forces in 1940 in retaliation for Thai attacks on French Indochinese towns. Ubon grew extensively during World War II when Japanese forces brought in prisoners of war by rail from Kanchanaburi. One legacy of this is a monument in the city's central Thung Si Meuang Park erected by British prisoners of war in gratitude to the citizens of Ubon for assisting them. During the Vietnam war, United States armed forces constructed Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, now a dual-use commercial airport.
Lao influence is evident in the architectural structure of some of the city's religious buildings. The city has branches of National Museum of Thailand. Ubon Ratchathani has a tropical dry climate. Winters are dry and warm. Temperatures rise until April, hot with an average daily maximum of 36.4 °C. The monsoon season runs from late April–October, with heavy rain and somewhat cooler temperatures during the day, although nights remain warm. Ubon is best known for its annual Candle Festival, held in July to mark the beginning of the rainy season retreat for Buddhists, Wan Khao Phansa called Buddhist Lent. One day prior, candles are taken to Thung Si Mueang, the central park in the middle of the city, to be decorated and exhibited in the evening. On the same evening, there are many smaller processions to bring candles to all Buddhist temples in Thailand; the main procession in Ubon takes place early the following morning. The province is known for its strong Buddhist tradition the practice of monks dwelling in the forest.
Wat Nong Pah Pong, for example, is a Buddhist forest monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition, established by Venerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo in 1954. Ajahn Chah's style of teaching and personality had a notable ability to reach people of other nationalities. Many foreigners came to learn from, train under, be ordained by Ajahn Chah. Wat Pa Nanachat was established in 1975. Since that time, Wat Pa Nanachat has become a respected forest monastery, it includes under its umbrella over fifty monks representing twenty-three nationalities. Other Buddhist temples, in and around the city, include Wat Thung Si Mueang, in the centre of the city featuring an old wooden library on stilts in a small lake, Wat Nong Bua near the Big C mall, featuring a chedi modelled on Bodh Gaya in India. Two major high schools in the central part of Ubon Ratchathani; these two schools are aged more than 100 years old. Benchama Maharacha School, which offers an English language stream. Narinukun School, which offers an English language stream.
Ave Maria School. Assumption School, next to the Tesco-Lotus store on Chayangkun Road is a private Catholic school. Ubon Ratchathani University, a rural campus 15 kilometres south of the city, but accessible by two songthaew routes. Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University, an upgraded technical college just north of the central city. Ratchathani University, a private university with a large campus between the km5 post on the Ring Road and the Mun River. Mahachulalongkorn Ratchawitthayalai University is a Bangkok Buddhist university with a small campus on Wat Mahawanaram in the city, a new and much larger, but isolated campus in Tambon Krasop, northeast of the Ring Road. North Eastern Polytechnic College, with a campus on Chayangkun Road near the Big C Mall. Ubon Polytechnic College, with a campus on Chongkonnithan Road west of the city centre. Ratchathani Technology Vocational College, north of the Ring Road on Ubon 2 Road. Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, while Bangkok-based, operates the small Sun Witthaya Phatthana Ubon Ratchathani centre next to the National Archives, a block west of th
French Indochina
French Indochina known as the Indochinese Union after 1887 and the Indochinese Federation after 1947, was a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia. A grouping of the three Vietnamese regions of Tonkin and Cochinchina with Cambodia was formed in 1887. Laos was added in 1893 and the leased Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan in 1898; the capital was moved from Saigon to Hanoi in 1902 and again to Da Lat in 1939. In 1945 it was moved back to Hanoi. After the Fall of France during World War II, the colony was administered by the Vichy government and was under Japanese occupation until March 1945, when the Japanese overthrew the colonial regime. After the Japanese surrender, the Viet Minh, a communist organization led by Hồ Chí Minh, declared Vietnamese independence, but France subsequently took back control of French Indochina. An all-out independence war, known as the First Indochina War, broke out in late 1946 between French and Viet Minh forces. In order to create a political alternative to the Viet Minh, the State of Vietnam, led by former Emperor Bảo Đại, was proclaimed in 1949.
On 9 November 1953 the Kingdom of Cambodia proclaimed its independence. Following the Geneva Accord of 1954, the French evacuated Vietnam and French Indochina came to an end. French–Vietnamese relations started during the early 17th century with the arrival of the Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes. Around this time, Vietnam had only just begun its "Push to the South"—"Nam Tiến", the occupation of the Mekong Delta, a territory being part of the Khmer Empire and to a lesser extent, the kingdom of Champa which they had defeated in 1471. European involvement in Vietnam was confined to trade during the 18th century, as the remarkably successful work of the Jesuit missionaries continued. In 1787, Pierre Pigneau de Behaine, a French Catholic priest, petitioned the French government and organised French military volunteers to aid Nguyễn Ánh in retaking lands his family lost to the Tây Sơn. Pigneau died in Vietnam but his troops fought on until 1802 in the French assistance to Nguyễn Ánh; the French colonial empire was involved in Vietnam in the 19th century.
For its part, the Nguyễn dynasty saw Catholic missionaries as a political threat. In 1858, the brief period of unification under the Nguyễn dynasty ended with a successful attack on Da Nang by French Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly under the orders of Napoleon III. Diplomat Charles de Montigny's mission having failed, Genouilly's mission was to stop attempts to expel Catholic missionaries, his orders were to stop the persecution of missionaries and assure the unimpeded propagation of the faith. In September 1858, fourteen French gunships, 3,000 men and 300 Filipino troops provided by the Spanish attacked the port of Tourane, causing significant damage and occupying the city. After a few months, Rigault had to leave the city due to supply illnesses. Sailing south, de Genouilly captured the poorly defended city of Saigon on 18 February 1859. On 13 April 1862, the Vietnamese government was forced to cede the three provinces of Biên Hòa, Gia Định and Định Tường to France. De Genouilly was criticised for his actions and was replaced by Admiral Page in November 1859, with instructions to obtain a treaty protecting the Catholic faith in Vietnam, but refrain from territorial gains.
French policy four years saw a reversal, with the French continuing to accumulate territory. In 1862, France obtained concessions from Emperor Tự Đức, ceding three treaty ports in Annam and Tonkin, all of Cochinchina, the latter being formally declared a French territory in 1864. In 1867 the provinces of Châu Đốc, Hà Tiên and Vĩnh Long were added to French-controlled territory. In 1863, the Cambodian king Norodom had requested the establishment of a French protectorate over his country. In 1867, Siam renounced suzerainty over Cambodia and recognised the 1863 French protectorate on Cambodia, in exchange for the control of Battambang and Siem Reap provinces which became part of Thailand.. France obtained control over northern Vietnam following its victory over China in the Sino-French War. French Indochina was formed on 17 October 1887 from Annam, Tonkin and the Kingdom of Cambodia; the federation lasted until 21 July 1954. In the four protectorates, the French formally left the local rulers in power, who were the Emperors of Vietnam, Kings of Cambodia, Kings of Luang Prabang, but in fact gathered all powers in their hands, the local rulers acting only as figureheads.
French troops landed in Vietnam in 1858 and by the mid-1880s they had established a firm grip over the northern region. From 1885 to 1895, Phan Đình Phùng led a rebellion against France. Nationalist sentiments intensified in Vietnam during and after World War I, but all the uprisings and tentative efforts failed to obtain sufficient concessio
Tax
A tax is a mandatory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed upon a taxpayer by a governmental organization in order to fund various public expenditures. A failure to pay, along with resistance to taxation, is punishable by law. Taxes may be paid in money or as its labour equivalent. Most countries have a tax system in place to pay for public, common or agreed national needs and government functions; some levy a flat percentage rate of taxation on personal annual income, but most scale taxes based on annual income amounts. Most countries charge a tax both on corporate income and dividends. Countries or subunits also impose wealth taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, value-added taxes, payroll taxes or tarrifs; the legal definition, the economic definition of taxes differ in some ways such as economists do not regard many transfers to governments as taxes. For example, some transfers to the public sector are comparable to prices. Examples include, tuition at public universities, fees for utilities provided by local governments.
Governments obtain resources by "creating" money and coins, through voluntary gifts, by imposing penalties, by borrowing, by confiscating wealth. From the view of economists, a tax is a non-penal, yet compulsory transfer of resources from the private to the public sector, levied on a basis of predetermined criteria and without reference to specific benefit received. In modern taxation systems, governments levy taxes in money; the method of taxation and the government expenditure of taxes raised is highly debated in politics and economics. Tax collection is performed by a government agency such as the Ghana Revenue Authority, Canada Revenue Agency, the Internal Revenue Service in the United States, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs in the United Kingdom or Federal Tax Service in Russia; when taxes are not paid, the state may impose civil penalties or criminal penalties on the non-paying entity or individual. The levying of taxes aims to raise revenue to fund governing or to alter prices in order to affect demand.
States and their functional equivalents throughout history have used money provided by taxation to carry out many functions. Some of these include expenditures on economic infrastructure, scientific research and the arts, public works, data collection and dissemination, public insurance, the operation of government itself. A government's ability to raise taxes is called its fiscal capacity; when expenditures exceed tax revenue, a government accumulates debt. A portion of taxes may be used to service past debts. Governments use taxes to fund welfare and public services; these services can include education systems, pensions for the elderly, unemployment benefits, public transportation. Energy and waste management systems are common public utilities. According to the proponents of the chartalist theory of money creation, taxes are not needed for government revenue, as long as the government in question is able to issue fiat money. According to this view, the purpose of taxation is to maintain the stability of the currency, express public policy regarding the distribution of wealth, subsidizing certain industries or population groups or isolating the costs of certain benefits, such as highways or social security.
Effects can be divided in two fundamental categories: Taxes cause an income effect because they reduce purchasing power to taxpayers. Taxes cause a substitution effect when taxation causes a substitution between taxed goods and untaxed goods. If we consider, for instance, two normal goods, x and y, whose prices are px and py and an individual budget constraint given by the equation xpx + ypy = Y, where Y is the income, the slope of the budget constraint, in a graph where is represented good x on the vertical axis and good y on the horizontal axes, is equal to -py/px; the initial equilibrium is in the point, in which budget constraint and indifference curve are tangent, introducing an ad valorem tax on the y good, the budget constraint's slope becomes equal to -py/px. The new equilibrium is now in the tangent point with a lower indifferent curve; as can be noticed the tax's introduction causes two consequences: It changes the consumers' real income It raises the relative price of y good. The income effect shows the variation of y good quantity given by the change of real income.
The substitution effect shows the variation of y good determined by relative prices' variation. This kind of taxation can be considered distortionary. Another example can be the Introduction of an income lump-sum tax, with a parallel shift downward of the budget constraint, can be produced a higher revenue with the same loss of consumers' utility compared with the property tax case, from another point of view, the same revenue can be produced with a lower utility sacrifice; the lower utility or the lower revenue given by a distortionary tax are called excess pressure. The same result, reached with an income lump-sum tax, can be obtained with these following types of taxes (all of them cause only a budget constraint's shift without causi
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty the Great Yuan, was the empire or ruling dynasty of China established by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongolian Borjigin clan. It preceded the Ming dynasty. Although the Mongols had ruled territories including modern-day North China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Chinese style, the conquest was not complete until 1279, his realm was, by this point, isolated from the other khanates and controlled most of modern-day China and its surrounding areas, including modern Mongolia. It was the first foreign dynasty to rule all of China and lasted until 1368 which ended in Ming dynasty defeating the Yuan dynasty, the rebuked Genghisid rulers retreated to their Mongolian homeland and continued to rule the Northern Yuan dynasty; some of the Mongolian Emperors of the Yuan mastered the Chinese language, while others only used their native language and the'Phags-pa script. The Yuan dynasty was the khanate ruled by the successors of Möngke Khan after the division of the Mongol Empire.
In official Chinese histories, the Yuan dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven. The dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, yet he placed his grandfather Genghis Khan on the imperial records as the official founder of the dynasty as Taizu. In the Proclamation of the Dynastic Name, Kublai announced the name of the new dynasty as Great Yuan and claimed the succession of former Chinese dynasties from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the Tang dynasty. In addition to Emperor of China, Kublai Khan claimed the title of Great Khan, supreme over the other successor khanates: the Chagatai, the Golden Horde, the Ilkhanate; as such, the Yuan was sometimes referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan. However, while the claim of supremacy by the Yuan emperors was at times recognized by the western khans, their subservience was nominal and each continued its own separate development. In 1271, Kublai Khan imposed the name Great Yuan. "Dà Yuán" is from the clause "大哉乾元" in the Commentaries on the Classic of Changes section regarding the first hexagram Qián.
The counterpart in the Mongolian language was Dai Ön Ulus rendered as Ikh Yuan Üls or Yekhe Yuan Ulus. In Mongolian, Dai Ön was used in conjunction with the "Yeke Mongghul Ulus", resulting in ᠳᠠᠢᠦᠨᠶᠡᠬᠡᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯᠦᠯᠦᠰ, meaning "Great Yuan Great Mongol State"; the Yuan dynasty is known by westerners as the "Mongol dynasty" or "Mongol Dynasty of China", similar to the names "Manchu dynasty" or "Manchu Dynasty of China" which were used by westerners for the Qing dynasty. Furthermore, the Yuan is sometimes known as the "Empire of the Great Khan" or "Khanate of the Great Khan", which appeared on some Yuan maps, since Yuan emperors held the nominal title of Great Khan. Both terms can refer to the khanate within the Mongol Empire directly ruled by Great Khans before the actual establishment of the Yuan dynasty by Kublai Khan in 1271. Genghis Khan united the Mongol tribes of the steppes and became Great Khan in 1206, he and his successors expanded the Mongol empire across Asia. Under the reign of Genghis' third son, Ögedei Khan, the Mongols destroyed the weakened Jin dynasty in 1234, conquering most of northern China.
Ögedei offered his nephew Kublai a position in Hebei. Kublai was unable to read Chinese but had several Han teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sorghaghtani, he sought the counsel of Chinese Confucian advisers. Möngke Khan succeeded Ögedei's son, Güyük, as Great Khan in 1251, he granted his brother Kublai control over Mongol held territories in China. Kublai built schools for Confucian scholars, issued paper money, revived Chinese rituals, endorsed policies that stimulated agricultural and commercial growth, he adopted as his capital city Kaiping in Inner Mongolia renamed Shangdu. Many Han Chinese and Khitan defected to the Mongols to fight against the Jin. Two Han Chinese leaders, Shi Tianze, Liu Heima, the Khitan Xiao Zhala defected and commanded the 3 Tumens in the Mongol army. Liu Heima and Shi Tianze served Ogödei Khan. Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang led armies against Western Xia for the Mongols. There were 4 Han Tumens and 3 Khitan Tumens, with each Tumen consisting of 10,000 troops.
The three Khitan Generals Shimobeidier and Xiaozhacizhizizhongxi commanded the three Khitan Tumens and the four Han Generals Zhang Rou, Yan Shi, Shi Tianze, Liu Heima commanded the four Han tumens under Ogödei Khan. Möngke Khan commenced a military campaign against the Chinese Song dynasty in southern China; the Mongol force that invaded southern China was far greater than the force they sent to invade the Middle East in 1256. He died in 1259 without a successor. Kublai returned from fighting the Song in 1260 when he learned that his brother, Ariq Böke, was challenging his claim to the throne. Kublai convened a kurultai in Kaiping. A rival kurultai in Mongolia proclaimed Ariq Böke Great Khan. Kublai depended on the cooperation of his Chinese subjects to ensure that his army received ample resources, he bolstered his popularity among his subjects by modeling his government on the bureaucracy of traditional Chinese dynasties and adopting the Chinese era name of Zhongtong. Ariq Böke was hampered by inadequate supplies and surrendered in 1264.
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Thailand
Thailand the Kingdom of Thailand and known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula composed of 76 provinces. At 513,120 km2 and over 68 million people, Thailand is the world's 50th largest country by total area and the 21st-most-populous country; the capital and largest city is a special administrative area. Thailand is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar, its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. Although nominally a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, the most recent coup in 2014 established a de facto military dictatorship. Tai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 11th century. Various Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, the Khmer Empire and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as Ngoenyang, the Sukhothai Kingdom, Lan Na and the Ayutthaya Kingdom, which rivaled each other.
European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, one of the great powers in the region. Ayutthaya reached its peak during cosmopolitan Narai's reign declining thereafter until being destroyed in 1767 in a war with Burma. Taksin reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-lived Thonburi Kingdom, he was succeeded in 1782 by Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, the first monarch of the Chakri dynasty and founder of the Rattanakosin Kingdom, which lasted into the early 20th century. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, Siam faced pressure from France and the United Kingdom, including forced concessions of territory, but it remained the only Southeast Asian country to avoid direct Western rule. Following a bloodless revolution in 1932, Siam became a constitutional monarchy and changed its official name to "Thailand". While it joined the Allies in World War I, Thailand was an Axis satellite in World War II. In the late 1950s, a military coup revived the monarchy's influential role in politics.
Thailand became a major ally of the United States and played a key anti-communist role in the region. Apart from a brief period of parliamentary democracy in the mid-1970s, Thailand has periodically alternated between democracy and military rule. In the 21st century, Thailand endured a political crisis that culminated in two coups and the establishment of its current and 20th constitution by the military junta. Thailand is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy under a military junta. Thailand is a founding member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations and remains a major ally of the US. Despite its comparatively sporadic changes in leadership, it is considered a regional power in Southeast Asia and a middle power in global affairs. With a high level of human development, the second largest economy in Southeast Asia, the 20th largest by PPP, Thailand is classified as a newly industrialized economy. Thailand the Kingdom of Thailand known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia.
The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens. By outsiders prior to 1949, it was known by the exonym Siam; the word Siam may have originated from Pali or Sanskrit श्याम or Mon ရာမည. The names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word; the word Śyâma is not its origin, but a learned and artificial distortion. Another theory is the name derives from Chinese: "Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century; the Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam." A further possibility is that Mon-speaking peoples migrating south called themselves'syem' as do the autochthonous Mon-Khmer-speaking inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula. The signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut Rex Siamensium, giving the name "Siam" official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed to Siam from 1946 to 1948. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means "free man" in the Thai language, "differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs".
A famous Thai scholar argued that Thai means "people" or "human being", since his investigation shows that in some rural areas the word "Thai" was used instead of the usual Thai word "khon" for people. According to Michel Ferlus, the ethnonyms Thai/Tai would have evolved from the etymon *kri:'human being' through the following chain: *kəri: > *kəli: > *kədi:/*kədaj > *di:/*daj > *dajA > tʰajA2 or > tajA2. Michel Ferlus' work is based on some simple rules of phonetic change observable in the Sinosphere and studied for t
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