Mainland Southeast Asia: Turmoil and Peace - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 425

crushed the empire by 1767. Ayuthaya' s ruling class was
decimated. Thousands of people and their wealth were
taken away . The city , which had been one of the greatest
and wealthiest in Asia, was burned and vast tracts sub-
jected to a scorched earth policy .

has served as a refugee center for hundreds of thousands
fleeing the conflicts of former French Indochina.

CHANGE, FAITH, AND ORDER
America' s involvement in Vietnam was a powerful factor
in opening up Thai society . In the 1970s, international
tourism struck the country in a big way and labor migra-
tion began in earnest. This stimulated consumer culture
and the emergence of a plethora of “lifestyles.” What
does this mean for Thai culture?
The Thais are confident that future developments
will be adapted to the Thai way of life. One important as-
pect of Thai culture is order. Thais like a well-regulated
life with a bent for aestheticism and appreciation for har-
monious social order. Implicit in this is respect for inter-
personal relationships and hierarchy in concert with
ensuing rights and obligations. Even with modernization
and social transformation, the expectation that society
should be orderly remains.
The role of the sangha in the knowledge of Theravada—
original teachings—is predominant. The monks are fed
twice a day by the common people before noon. This
gives people a chance to acquire merit. Almost every
Thai male earns merit for his family by going into the
monkhood as a novice for at least a rainy season. T Tradi-
tionally , few Thai women would consider marrying a
man who had not spent time thinking about ethics,
learning to read, meditating on the Four Noble T Truths, or
focusing on how to be an upstanding human being. Even
in the whirling commercial world of Bangkok, the role of
monks and wats and the belief system of Theravada Bud-
dhism are central.
In Thai thought, Buddhism encompasses virtue and
wisdom, which can liberate one from the common order
of life. It transcends and relates to the ultimate order of
morality and goodness symbolized by the home, the
mother, and the female symbols of Mother Earth and
Mother Rice. Buddha and these female entities constitute
the domain of moral goodness.
Next comes the less tenuous order of the realm of
supernatural powers outside the home. This area of sak-
sit is the focus of religious preoccupation, with rules for
dealing with it.
Beyond the area of saksit lies the area of chaos repre-
sented by wickedness and immorality . Forces of good-
ness can intermingle with forces of evil. Pure order can
descend into chaos; Buddha can emerge into evil; pure
virtue can become deeply immoral; and safety can trans-
form into danger.

THE RISE OF BANGKOK
By 1785, new Thai rulers had emerged to smash the
Burmese and establish new kingdoms. These eventually
consolidated into an area larger than Ayuthaya had ever
known. The new empire included all of mainland South-
east Asia excluding Burma and Vietnam. It also included
some of the northern Malay states. A new capital was es-
tablished at Bangkok in 1782.
In 1896 an Anglo-French agreement recognized
Thailand as an independent buffer state between British
Burma and French Indochina. Not experiencing any in-
tense Western pressures, Bangkok remained traditional
until the mid-nineteenth century . At this time, many
Thai nobles studied Western languages, science, and
mathematics. Bangkok was prepared to orient itself to-
ward the West. In 1855, the Bowring T Treaty was signed
with Britain, giving Britain extraterritorial rights. T Treaties
with other countries followed.
Eventually the Thai empire was stripped of some of
its holdings. It had to abandon its Cambodian and Laot-
ian territory to the French and the Malay states to the
British. In 1896, a treaty between England and France
guaranteed the independence of most of the territory
that today forms Thailand. Siam became Thailand in
1939, although it was still referred to as Siam during
World War II.
Modernization proceeded with the building of rail-
ways and Western-style education for royal and upper-
class children. Rice exports boomed, as did teak and
rubber. But there was no significant industrialization.
Western and Chinese interests controlled the economy .
The government stimulated Chinese assimilation
into Thai society through business partnerships and in-
termarriage. The Chinese also adopted the Thai language,
education, and culture.
European predominance in Southeast Asia was chal-
lenged by the Japanese, who invaded Thailand in 1941.
When Western forces collapsed in the area, Thailand
nominally allied itself with Japan, although effectively , it
was an occupied country .
The defeat of Japan in 1945 was followed by an era
of close relations with the United States in an alignment
against the spread of communism in the region. Thailand