Early European visitors placed Ayutthaya alongside China and India as the great powers of Asia. Yet in 1767 the city was destroyed and its history has been neglected. This book is the first study of Ayutthaya from its emergence in the thirteenth century until its fall. It offers a wide-ranging view of social, political, and cultural history with focus on commerce, kingship, Buddhism, and war. By drawing on a wide range of sources including chronicles, accounts by Europeans, Chinese, Persians, and Japanese, law, literature, art, landscape, and language, the book presents early Siam as a 'commercial' society, not the peasant society usually assumed. Baker and Phongpaichit attribute the fall of the city not to internal conflict or dynastic decline but failure to manage the social and political consequences of prosperity. This book is essential reading for all those interested in the history of Southeast Asia and the early modern world.
The making of modern Thailand is grounded in specific political institutions, Brahmanical tropes, sacred Buddhist traditions stylized with Hindu rituals. Over and above these mysterious practices and
In the twilight years of Thailand's ailing King Bhumibol, battles between royalists and their red shirt opponents are increasing, and the tectonic shifts that lie beneath Thailand's decade-old politic
Since 2004, Thailand’s southern border provinces have been plagued by violence. There are a wide array of explanations for this violence, from the revival of Malay nationalist movements and the influe
A brave British widow goes to Siam and?by dint of her principled and indomitable character?inspires that despotic nation to abolish slavery and absolute rule: this appealing legend first took shape af
The Historical Dictionary of Thailand, Third Edition covers the history of Thailand through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has s
This volume reports on the initial settlement of Ban Non Wat and represents a further step towards illuminating the prehistoric societies of the upper Mun Valley during the two millennia of cultural c
If you lived in Bangkok, would you— Ride on a boat to get to school? Learn to dance with your fingers bending like melting chocolate bars? Eat your breakfast on the street? Bring garl
In October 1973 a mass movement forced Thailand’s prime minister to step down and leave the country, ending nearly forty years of dictatorship. Three years later, in a brutal reassertion of authoritar
The people of Thailand call their country "Ratchaanachak Thai"---Kingdom of Thailand. During two periods of history, Thailand was called "Siam"---in 1855-1939 and 1946-1949. By any name, this nation
Evocative and incisive, Bangkok Found looks deep within traditional culture to discover how Bangkok is like no other contemporary city. It's the book you read after you've seen the temples and enjoyed
Ban Non Wat is one of the many moated and banked settlements in Thailand's upper Mon Valley that are remains of structures that predated the current civilization there. This volume introduces the resu
Contemporary Thailand has seen the rise of an immense cult focused on King Chulalongkorn the Great (r. 1868-1910). In Worshipping the Great Moderniser, Irene Stengs explores the continuing appeal of K
The second edition of A History of Thailand brings the Thai story up to date. It draws on new Thai-language research and reveals how a world of mandarin nobles and unfree labour evolved into a rural s
The coup leader who believed he was the reincarnation of an eighteenth-century king. The godfather who was slashed to death by a machete on the orders of his son. The party boss who taught his followe
