Thai Country

Thailand is a country at the centre of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Burma. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest.
Thailand is a monarchy headed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX, and governed by a military junta that took power in May 2014. The king is the ninth of the House of Chakri, and has reigned since 1946 as the world's longest-accommodating current head of state and the country's longest-reigning monarch. The King of Thailand's designations include Head of State, Head of the Armed Forces, Adherent of Buddhism, and Upholder of religions.
With a total area of approximately 513,000 km2 (198,000 sq mi), Thailand is the world's 51st-most immensely colossal country. It is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and most sizably voluminous city is Bangkok, which is Thailand's political, commercial, industrial, and cultural hub. About 75–95% of the population is ethnically Tai, which includes four major regional groups: central Thai, northeastern Thai (Khon [Lao] Isan), northern Thai (Khon Mueang); and southern Thai. Thai Chinese, those of consequential Chinese heritage, are 14% of the population, while Thais with partial Chinese ancestry comprise up to 40% of the population. Thai Malays represent 3% of the population, with the remnant consisting of Mons, Khmers and sundry "hill tribes". The country's official language is Thai and the primary religion is Buddhism, which is practised by around 95% of the population.

Thailand experienced rapid economic magnification between 1985 and 1996, becoming an incipiently industrialised country and a major exporter. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy. Among the ten ASEAN countries, Thailand ranks second in quality of life and the country's HDI had been rated as "high". Its immensely colossal population and growing economic influence have made it a middle power in the region and around the world.
There is evidence of human habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present, with stone artefacts dated to this period at Tham Lod Rockshelter in Mae Hong Son. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by theculture and religions of India, starting with the Kingdom of Funan around the 1st century CE to the Khmer Empire.
Ayutthaya was burned and sacked in 1767 by a Burmese army under King Hsinbyushin. Indian influence on Siamese culture was partly the result of direct contact with Indian settlers, but mainly it was established indirectly via the Indianized kingdoms ofDvaravati, Srivijaya, and Cambodia. E:A Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Imperium and far on into the first millennium after Christ. Later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava Dynasty and north Indian Gupta Imperium.
After the fall of the Khmer Imperium in the 13th century, sundry states thrived there, such as the sundry Tai, Mon, Khmer, and MalayKingdoms, as optically discerned through the numerous archaeological sites and artefacts that are scattered throughout the Siamese landscape. Prior to the 12th century however, the first Thai or Siamese state is traditionally considered to be the Buddhist kingdom of Sukhothai, which was founded in 1238.

Following the decline and fall of the Khmer imperium in the 13th–15th century, the Buddhist Tai kingdoms of Sukhothai, Lanna, and Lan Xang (now Laos) were on the elevate. However, a century later, the potency of Sukhothai was overshadowed by the incipient Kingdom of Ayutthaya, established in the mid-14th century in the lower Chao Phraya River or Menam area.
Ayutthaya's expansion centred along the Menam while in the northern valleys the Lanna Kingdom and other minuscule Tai city-states ruled the area. In 1431, the Khmer forsook Angkor after Ayutthaya forces invaded the city. Thailand retained a tradition of trade with its neighbouring states, from China to India, Persia, and Arab lands. Ayutthaya became one of the most vibrant trading centres in Asia. European traders arrived in the 16th century, beginning with the Portuguese, followed by the French, Dutch, and English.
After the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 to the Burmese, King Taksin the Great moved the capital of Thailand to Thonburi for approximately 15 years. The current Rattanakosin era of Thai history commenced in 1782, following the establishment of Bangkok as capital of the Chakri dynasty under King Rama I the Great. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "A quarter to a third of the population of some areas of Thailand and Burma were slaves in the 17th through the 19th centuries.
Despite European pressure, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation to never have been colonised.This has been ascribed to the long succession of able rulers in the past four centuries who exploited the rivalry and tension between French Indochina and the British Imperium. As a result, the country remained a buffer state between components of Southeast Asia that were colonised by the two colonial potencies, Great Britain and France. Western influence nevertheless led to many reforms in the 19th century and major concessions, most eminently the loss of a sizably voluminous territory on the east side of the Mekong to the French and the step-by-step absorption by Britain of the Shan and Karen people areas and Malay Peninsula.