Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 70 million, it spans 513,120 square kilometres (198,120sqmi). 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.
Thailand is a middle power in global affairs and a founding member of ASEAN, and it ranks very high in the Human Development Index. It has the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia and the 23rd-largest in the world by PPP, and it ranks 91st by nominal GDP per capita. Thailand is classified as a newly industrialised economy, with manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism as leading sectors. (Full article...)
Selected articles -
Image 1
Prostitution in Thailand is not illegal. Section 5 of the relevant Act makes that very clear. What is forbidden is openly and shamelessly offering sexual services or causing a public nuisance. However, due to police corruption and an economic reliance on prostitution dating back to the Vietnam War, it remains a significant presence in the country. It results from poverty, low levels of education and a lack of employment in rural areas. Prostitutes mostly come from the northeastern (Isan) region of Thailand, from ethnic minorities or from neighbouring countries, especially Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. In 2019, UNAIDS estimated the total population of sex workers in Thailand to be 43,000. (Full article...)
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Pridi in 1945
Pridi Banomyong (Thai: ปรีดี พนมยงค์, RTGS:Pridi Phanomyong, pronounced[prīː.dīːpʰā.nōm.jōŋ]; 11 May 1900 – 2 May 1983), also known by his noble title Luang Praditmanutham (Thai: หลวงประดิษฐ์มนูธรรม), was a Thai statesman and professor.:13 He led Thailand while serving in multiple ministerial posts, as regent, and as prime minister. He led the civilian wing of Khana Ratsadon, and helped found the University of Moral and Political Sciences and the Bank of Thailand.
Born to a family of farmers in Ayutthaya province, he received a good education, becoming one of the nation's youngest barristers in 1919, at the age of nineteen. In 1920, he won a royal scholarship granted by the King of Siam to study in France, where he graduated from the University of Caen with a master's degree, and received a doctorate from the University of Paris in 1927. In the same year, he co-founded Khana Ratsadon with like-minded Siamese overseas royal-sponsored students. After returning to Thailand, still called Siam at the time, he worked as a judge, judicial secretariat, and professor. In the aftermath of 1932 Siamese Revolution, he played an important role in drafting two of the country's first constitutions and proposing a socialist economic plan influenced by communism scheme, principles and conducts. His plan was ill-received, and Pridi went into a short period of political exile as aftermatch of the fight-for-power with his fellow revolutionists. On his return, he took many ministerial posts in Khana Ratsadon governments. His contributions include modernizing Thai legal codes, laying the foundation for Thailand's local government system, negotiating the cancellation of unequal treaties with the West, and tax reform. (Full article...)
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Yingluck in 2012
Yingluck Shinawatra (Thai: ยิ่งลักษณ์ ชินวัตร, RTGS:Yinglak Chinnawat, pronounced[jîŋ.lákt͡ɕʰīn.nā.wát]ⓘ; born 21 June 1967), nicknamed Pou (Thai: ปู, RTGS:Pu, pronounced[pūː], meaning "crab"), is a Thai businesswoman, politician and a member of the Pheu Thai Party who became the Prime Minister of Thailand following the 2011 election. Yingluck was Thailand's first female prime minister and its youngest in over 60 years. She was removed from office on 7 May 2014 by a Constitutional Court decision.
Born in Chiang Mai Province into a wealthy family of Hakka Chinese descent, Yingluck Shinawatra earned a bachelor's degree from Chiang Mai University and a master's degree from Kentucky State University, both in public administration. She then became an executive in the businesses founded by her elder brother, Thaksin Shinawatra and later became the president of property developer SC Asset and managing director of Advanced Info Service. Thaksin served as prime minister from 2001 until 2006 when he was overthrown by a military coup. He fled abroad shortly before he was convicted in absentia of using his position to increase his own wealth. Thereafter, he lived in self-imposed exile to avoid serving his prison sentence until he returned to Thailand in August 2023. (Full article...)
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7sqmi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population of 10.539million as of 2020, 15.3 per cent of the country's population. Over 14 million people (22.2 per cent) lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in both size and importance to the national economy.
Bangkok traces its roots to a small trading post during the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 15th century, which eventually grew and became the site of two capital cities, Thonburi in 1767 and Rattanakosin in 1782. Bangkok was at the heart of the modernization of Siam, later renamed Thailand, during the late-19th century, as the country faced pressures from the West. The city was at the centre of Thailand's political struggles throughout the 20th century, as the country abolished absolute monarchy, adopted constitutional rule, and underwent numerous coups and several uprisings. The city, incorporated as a special administrative area under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in 1972, grew rapidly during the 1960s through the 1980s and now exerts a significant impact on Thailand's politics, economy, education, media and modern society. (Full article...)
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Prayut in 2019
Prayut Chan-o-cha (sometimes spelled Prayuth Chan-ocha; Thai: ประยุทธ์ จันทร์โอชา, pronounced[prā.júttɕān.ʔōː.tɕʰāː]ⓘ; born 21 March 1954) is a Thai retired politician and army officer who became the 29th Prime Minister of Thailand from 2014 when he seized power in a military coup, to 2023. He also served as the minister of defence, a position he held in his own government from 2019 to 2023. Prayut served as Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army from 2010 to 2014 and led the 2014 Thai coup d'état which installed the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the military junta which governed Thailand between 22 May 2014 and 10 July 2019.
After his appointment as army chief in 2010, Prayut was characterised as a royalist and an opponent of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Considered a hardliner within the military, he was one of the leading proponents of military crackdowns on the Red Shirt demonstrations of April 2009 and April–May 2010. He later sought to moderate his profile, talking to relatives of protesters who were killed in the bloody conflict, and co-operating with the government of Yingluck Shinawatra who won parliamentary elections in July 2011. (Full article...)
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The Rattanakosin Kingdom (Thai: อาณาจักรรัตนโกสินทร์, RTGS:Anachak Rattanakosin, pronounced[ʔāːnāːt͡ɕàkráttāná(ʔ)kōːsǐn]ⓘ, abbreviated as รัตนโกสินทร์, Thai pronunciation:[ráttāná(ʔ)kōːsǐn]), the Kingdom of Siam, or the Bangkok Empire, were names used to reference the fourth and current Thai kingdom in the history of Thailand (then known as Siam). It was founded in 1782 with the establishment of Rattanakosin (Bangkok), which replaced the city of Thonburi as the capital of Siam. This article covers the period until the Siamese revolution of 1932.
The maximum zone of influence of Rattanakosin included the vassal states of Cambodia, Laos, Shan States, and the northern Malay states. The kingdom was founded by Rama I of the Chakri Dynasty. The first half of this period was characterized by the consolidation of Siamese power in the center of Mainland Southeast Asia and was punctuated by contests and wars for regional supremacy with rival powers Burma and Vietnam. The second period was one of engagements with the colonial powers of Britain and France in which Siam remained the only Southeast Asian state to maintain its independence. (Full article...)
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Results by constituency
General elections were held in Thailand on 24 March 2019. They were the first elections since the 2014 Thai coup d'état that installed coup leader General Prayut Chan-o-cha as prime minister, and the first held in accordance with the 2017 constitution, which was drafted under the ruling military junta. The elections selected the five hundred members of the new House of Representatives, the previous House having been dissolved by the coup.
Seventy-seven parties contested the elections, including the two major parties, Pheu Thai (which supported former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and held a majority of seats prior to the coup) and the Democrat Party (the main opposition party prior to the coup). They were joined by several new parties, which mostly campaigned on a pro- or anti-junta stance. The former included the Prayut-aligned Palang Pracharath Party, while the latter included the Future Forward Party, which catered to young voters, as well as several Pheu Thai–aligned parties. (Full article...)
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Formal portrait, c. 1900s
Chulalongkorn (Thai: จุฬาลงกรณ์, 20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910) was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, titled Rama V from 1 October 1868 to his death in 23 October 1910.
Chulalongkorn was born as the son of King Mongkut in 1853. In 1868, he travelled with his father and Westerners invited by Mongkut to observe the solar eclipse of 18 August 1868 in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province. However, Chulalongkorn and his father both contracted malaria which resulted in his father's death. (Full article...)
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Emblem of the Royal Thai Armed Forces
The Royal Thai Armed Forces (RTARF) (Thai: กองทัพไทย; RTGS:Kong Thap Thai) are the armed forces of the Kingdom of Thailand.
The Highest Commander of the Royal Thai Armed Forces (จอมทัพไทย; RTGS:Chom Thap Thai) is the King of Thailand. The armed forces are managed by the Ministry of Defence of Thailand, which is headed by the minister of defence and commanded by the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters, which in turn is headed by the Chief of Defence Forces. The commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army is considered the most powerful position in the Thai Armed Forces. (Full article...)
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Phibunsongkhram c. 1940s
Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram (Thai: แปลก พิบูลสงคราม[plɛ̀ːkpʰí.būːn.sǒŋ.kʰrāːm]; alternatively transcribed as Pibulsongkram or Pibulsonggram; 14 July 1897 – 11 June 1964), locally known as Marshal P. (Thai: จอมพล ป.;[tɕɔ̄ːm.pʰōn.pɔ̄ː]), and contemporarily known as Phibun (Pibul) in the West, was a Thai military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Thailand from 1938 to 1944 and 1948 to 1957.
Phibunsongkhram was a member of the Army wing of Khana Ratsadon, the first political party in Thailand, and a leader of the Siamese revolution of 1932, which replaced Thailand's absolute monarchy with a constitutional monarchy. Phibun became the third Prime Minister of Thailand in 1938 while serving as Commander of the Royal Siamese Army. Inspired by the Italian fascism of Benito Mussolini, he established a de facto military dictatorship run along fascist lines, promoted Thai nationalism and Sinophobia, and allied Thailand with Imperial Japan in World War II. Phibun launched a modernization campaign known as the Thai Cultural Revolution that included a series of cultural mandates, which changed the country's name from "Siam" to "Thailand", and promoted the Thai language. (Full article...)
General images
The following are images from various Thailand-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1Funeral pyre of Chan Kusalo, the patriarch-abbot of northern Thailand. (from Culture of Thailand)
Image 2Wat Arun, the most prominent temple of the Thonburi period, derives its name from the Hindu god Aruṇa. Its main prang was constructed later in the Rattanakosin period. (from History of Thailand)
Image 3Mural painting at Phra Thi Nang Phutthaisawan dates back to the early Rattanakosin period. (from Culture of Thailand)
Image 20Map showing linguistic family tree overlaid on a geographic distribution map of Tai-Kadai family. This map only shows general pattern of the migration of Tai-speaking tribes, not specific routes, which would have snaked along the rivers and over the lower passes. (from History of Thailand)
Image 27The image depicts Khon, a traditional dance drama that has been recognized as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2018. (from Culture of Thailand)
Image 33Yi Peng, floating lantern festival in Northern Thailand, observed around the same time as Loy Krathong. (from Culture of Thailand)
Image 34Display of respect of the younger towards the elder is a cornerstone value in Thailand. A family during the Buddhist ceremony for young men who are to be ordained as monks. (from Culture of Thailand)
Image 35Phibun welcomes students of Chulalongkorn University, at Bangkok's Grand Palace – 8 October 1940. (from History of Thailand)
Image 36The roads along the old moat of Chiang Mai are full of vehicles during the Songkran water splashing festival. (from Culture of Thailand)
Image 37Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, the royal reception hall built in European architectural style. Construction was started by Rama V, but was completed in 1915. (from History of Thailand)
Image 38Thaksin Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand, 2001–2006. (from History of Thailand)
Image 42Wat Phra Kaew, an example of early Rattanakosin period architecture located in Bangkok's historic Rattanakosin Island. (from Culture of Thailand)
Image 43The Khmer temple of Wat Phra Prang Sam Yod, Lopburi. (from History of Thailand)
Image 44Thai women wearing Isan Modifide sinh dress for Boon Bang Fai festival in Roi Et (from Culture of Thailand)
Image 51General Prayut Chan-o-cha, the coup leader (from History of Thailand)
List articles
List of Thailand-related topics
List of Prime Ministers of Thailand
List of national parks of Thailand
List of birds of Thailand
List of cities in Thailand
List of Buddhist temples in Thailand
Provinces of Thailand
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Good article -
This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.
Robot Building in 2022
The Robot Building (Thai: ตึกหุ่นยนต์, Thai pronunciation:[tɯk̚˨˩.hun˨˩.jon˧], RTGS:tuek hun yon), located in the Sathorn business district of Bangkok, Thailand, houses United Overseas Bank's Bangkok headquarters. It was designed for the Bank of Asia by Sumet Jumsai to reflect the computerization of banking; its architecture is a reaction against neoclassical and high-tech postmodern architecture. The building's features, such as progressively receding walls, antennas, and eyes, contribute to its robotic appearance and to its practical function. Completed in 1986, the building is one of the last examples of modern architecture in Bangkok. (Full article...)
... that So Sethaputra compiled his authoritative English–Thai dictionary while in prison, with the manuscripts smuggled out for publication?
... that the electropop rock band Siamés created "Argentina's first anime music video"?
... that the first Thai typewriter left out two letters, which eventually became obsolete?
... that Thai YouTuber MindaRyn began an anime singing career after her music covers were noticed by a Japanese record label?
... that a kind of deep fried egg dish might be perceived as a warning in Thai folklore?
... that the performers in the Thai drag show Calypso Cabaret impressed Lady Gaga with their ability to be open about their identities?
... that the packaging of one Thai throat lozenge features five centipedes?
... that the first batch of Action Computer Enterprise's Discovery1600, one of the first multi-user microcomputers, was delivered to a tobacco-growing business in Thailand?
Selected fare or cuisine -
Chim chum
Chim chum (Thai: จิ้มจุ่ม, pronounced[t͡ɕîmt͡ɕùm]) is a Southeast Asian street food, popular especially in Thailand. It is traditionally made with chicken or pork and fresh herbs such as galangal, sweet basil, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, cooked in a small clay pot on a charcoal stove. It is often served with nam chim. (Full article...)
Credit: User:Terence Ong
Aerial view of Lumphini Park, Bangkok taken from The Dusit Thani Hotel.
More did you know -
... that the wildly popular Jatukham Rammathep amulet was created by a policeman in 1987 who believed the amulet's spirit helped him solve a murder case?
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