Thai
The Thai people of Thailand (Khon Thai), numbering more than 46.4 million, form part of a much larger population of speakers of Tai languages dispersed through the neighboring countries of Laos, Vietnam, China, Myanmar (Burma), and Malaysia. With disputed origins in southwestern China, Tai peoples began migrating into northern mainland Southeast Asia well before the eleventh century, establishing chiefdoms from the twelfth century onwards. The characteristic political organization was a muang, or petty state, consisting of a royal class and king, free peasants, and slaves, which was established in river valleys based on the cultivation of paddy rice. However, smaller.....
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