Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
INTRODUCTION
Bangkok Begins
Brown as the earth it flows upon, warm and languid and sensual, the Chao Phraya River
winds and loops southwards across the central plain of Thailand towards the South
China Sea, a distance of 370 kilometres (230 miles), the alluvial terrain at its lowest point
only 1.8 metres (6 ft) higher than the surface of the ocean. Across this fertile plain has
moved a changing cast of people who have left scattered remains behind them, the earliest
recognisable civilisations having been those of the Mon, the Khmer, and the Malay.
Around the seventh century a.d., the Tai people living in the mountainous regions of
southern China began to move further southwards, away from the spreading influence of
the Han Chinese, establishing settlements in the northern highlands of what are now Thail-
and, Laos and Vietnam. One group of migrants founded a town named Chiang Saen on the
southern bank of the Mekong River, which rose to be a small but powerful kingdom. Over
the centuries the migrants spread westwards and southwards, settling into the river valleys
of the mountainous regions, founding villages and towns and kingdoms. By 1100 a.d. the
Tai were firmly established at Nakhon Sawan, on the fringe of the central plain, where the
Ping and the Nan rivers come together to form the Chao Phraya.
The migration of the Tai people into the Upper Chao Phraya Valley brought them into
contact with the outer reaches of the Khmer empire. Centred at Angkor, the empire had
spread westward across the central plain of Thailand, absorbing Mon kingdoms that had
earlier spread into the region from Burma. One of these was Sukhothai, a trading settle-
ment on the banks of the Yom River, the main tributary of the Nan. Sukhothai seems to
have been loosely controlled by both the Khmer and the Mon at various periods, and pos-
sibly this is why the Tai were able to seize the city in 1238.
The Sukhothai era is considered to be the beginning of modern Thai identity, because
for the two centuries it lasted this period saw an extraordinary flowering of power, wealth
