Thailand
POPULATION 62,354,402
BUDDHIST 90.0 percent
MUSLIM 3.0 percent
CHRISTIAN 0.5 percent
HINDU 0.1 percent
OTHER 6.4 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
Situated along the southeastern rim of continental Asia, the Kingdom of Thailand is bordered by four countries: Myanmar to the west, Laos and Cambodia to the east, and Malaysia to the south. Its southern peninsular region is flanked to the east by the Gulf of Thailand and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the Strait of Malacca. Much of Thailand is economically undeveloped. Its climate is tropical, its terrain is mountainous, and rivers have traditionally provided the most common travel routes through the country. Thailand's port cities lured traders from India, whose ships also took Buddhist missionaries to Thailand.
Theravada Buddhism, which originated about 2,000 years ago in Thailand, has some 56 million followers there. Animism, which has the second largest following, is practiced by indigenous tribal peoples as well as by tribal refugees from neighboring countries. Thaispeaking Muslims live mainly in the Bangkok region, but Malay-speaking Thai Muslims are found predominantly in southern Thailand on the Malay Peninsula, an area that was formerly a Malayan sultanate. Other religions in Thailand are Christianity, which first appeared in the seventeenth century, and Hinduism, which dates back nearly 2,000 years.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 4,587 words (approx. 15 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Thailand Access Pass.
