Thai people, Chao Phraya Thai, Central Thai people, Southern Thai people, Siamese, Thai Siam, Tai Noi people, are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Thailand. In a narrower sense, the Thais are also a Tai ethnic group dominant in Central and Southern Thailand. Part of the larger Tai ethno-linguistic group native to Southeast Asia as well as Southern China and Northeast India, Thais speak the Sukhothai languages, which is classified as part of the Kra–Dai family of languages. The majority of Thais are followers of Theravada Buddhism.
Thai people at a cremation ceremony at Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai
Buddhist monks receiving food from villagers
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 70 million, it spans 513,120 square kilometres (198,120 sq mi). Thailand is bordered to the northwest by Myanmar, to the northeast and east by Laos, to the southeast by Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the southwest by the Andaman Sea; it also shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the southeast and Indonesia and India to the southwest. Bangkok is the state capital and largest city.
Phra Achana, Wat Si Chum, Sukhothai Historical Park.
The ruins of Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai Historical Park.
Ayutthaya and neighbors, c. 1415 CE.
Painting of Ayutthaya city c. 1665, by Johannes Vingboons