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and culture. Within twenty years the kingdom covered the entire Upper Chao Phraya Val-
ley. Under its third king, Ramkhamhaeng, the city-state adopted Theravada, the oldest
form of Buddhism, as its official religion. Ramkhamhaeng also established the modern
Thai script, basing it on the written language of the Khmer, which was itself derived from
the very old Tamil script known as
vattezhuttu
, meaning “rounded writing”, which in turn
was derived from the ancient Brahmi. The Buddhist and Hindu cultural influences that
had originated in India and Sri Lanka and been propagated by the Khmer empire began
to coalesce into a distinctively Thai form in religious art and temple architecture.
Sukhothai developed into an important trading centre, trading with China, India and
the Khmer empire. As the city-state grew in wealth and influence, its reach expanded out
of the Upper Chao Phraya Valley until it encompassed Lampang in the north, Martaban
in Burma, Vientiane and Luang Prabang in Laos, and parts of the Malay peninsula in the
south. This same period saw the rise of the Lanna kingdom in the far north of Thailand, as
the Tai settlements in that region evolved. Based initially at Chiang Rai and then at Chiang
Mai, Lanna was another great flowering of Thai culture. Relationships between Sukhothai
and Lanna were largely peaceful. Lanna had more cause to fear Burma, a continual men-
acing presence, and the rise of the Mongol empire in China.
Against this background the founding of Ayutthaya, much further to the south, ap-
pears at first to have been of little consequence. There had been earlier kingdoms at this
part of the lower Chao Phraya floodplain, and in the middle of the fourteenth century a
man who was either a Tai nobleman or a rich Chinese merchant, and who is known to
history as King Uthong, established himself on an island formed by the gathering of three
rivers: the Chao Phraya, the Pasak and the Lopburi. Ayutthaya had two natural advant-
ages: as an island it was well protected from aggressors, and it had easy access to the sea,
just a hundred kilometres further down the Chao Phraya. Overseas trading had started to
become significant, and the rise of Ayutthaya was therefore a natural development. It also
happened fast. Ayutthaya was founded in 1351, and less than thirty years later had sub-
sumed Sukhothai, which had begun to decline after the death of Ramkhamhaeng.
Ayutthaya became one of the richest and most beautiful cities in Asia and the most
powerful kingdom on the Southeast Asian mainland. It also became one of the most cos-
mopolitan. The greatest volume of trade was with China, and such was the importance
of the relationship that Ayutthaya entered willingly into a tributary relationship with the
Chinese emperors. Chinese merchants and workers settled in Ayutthaya and many of
them rose to positions of power and wealth. Muslim merchants came from India, and
Japanese and Persians followed. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive, in
