An Illustrated History of Thailand

Each section follows a historical chronology, covering accounts of major events during each reign. This record of events is blended with descriptive passages about monuments surviving today that are relevant to and help illuminate the history. Political development is thus paralleled by Thailand's cultural development. Thailand's historical progression has been complex, and although the foundations of national identity-religion and monarchy in particular-were established in the earliest days of statehood dating back to the 13th century, it is only in comparatively recent times that all elements-social, political, cultural and linguistic-have cohered into what is recognizable today as Thai and Thailand.