Thaification, or Thai-ization, is the process by which people of different cultural and ethnic origins living in
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
become
assimilated to the dominant culture of Thailand, that of
central Thailand
Central Thailand (Central plain) or more specifically Siam (also known as Suvarnabhumi and Dvaravati) is one of the regions of Thailand, covering the broad alluvial plain of the Chao Phraya River. It is separated from northeast Thailand (Isan) ...
.
Thaification was a step in the creation in the early 20th century of the Thai
nation state
A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group.
A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may ...
in which
Central Thai people
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
(which Thai Chinese call them "Siamese") occupy a dominant position, as opposed to the historically multicultural
Kingdom of Siam. A related term, "
Thainess
Thainess or the Thai identity ( th, ความเป็นไทย, ) is a conceptual identity regarding the quality of being Thai, i.e. characteristics seen as distinctive to the Thai people, their culture, and those belonging to Thailand as a ...
", describes the particular characteristics that distinguish Thai persons from others.
Thaification trend was changed from Central Thainess into blend between Central Thai and Thai Chinese after
Field Marshal Plaek was
overthrown in 1947.
Motives
Thaification is a byproduct of the
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
policies mandated by the Thai state after the
Siamese coup d'état of 1933
Siamese describes something of or related to Siam (now called Thailand), or more specifically the region of Central Thailand, usually including Southern Thailand.
Siamese may refer to:
Animals
* Siamese cat, a domestic cat breed
*Siamese croc ...
. The coup leaders, said to be inspired by
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
ideas of an exclusive
nation state
A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group.
A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may ...
, acted more in accordance with their close German nationalist and anti-democratic counterparts (pre-Nazi) to effect kingdom-wide dominance by the central Thai culture. Minority-owned businesses, like the traditionally merchant
Thai Chinese
Thai Chinese (also known as Chinese Thais, Sino-Thais), Thais of Chinese origin ( th, ชาวไทยเชื้อสายจีน; ''exonym and also domestically''), endonym Thai people ( th, ชาวไทย), are Chinese descenda ...
, were aggressively acquired by the state, which gave preferential contracts to ethnic
Central Thais and cooperative ethnic Chinese.
Thai identity was mandated via
12 Thai cultural mandates and reinforced both in the heartlands and in rural areas.
Central Thailand
Central Thailand (Central plain) or more specifically Siam (also known as Suvarnabhumi and Dvaravati) is one of the regions of Thailand, covering the broad alluvial plain of the Chao Phraya River. It is separated from northeast Thailand (Isan) ...
became economically and politically dominant, and Central Thais became the state-mandated language of the
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...
, business, education, and all state agencies. Central Thai values were successfully inculcated into being perceived as the desirable national values, with increasing proportions of the population identified as Thai.
Central Thai culture, being the culture of wealth and status, made it hugely attractive to a once-diverse population seeking to be identified with
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
unity.
Targets
The main targets of Thaification were
ethnic Chinese
The Chinese people or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation.
Chinese people are known as Zhongguoren () or as Huaren () by speakers of s ...
and other
ethnic groups
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
on the edges of the kingdom, geographically and culturally: the
Lao of
Isan
Northeast Thailand or Isan ( Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 prov ...
(อีสาน), the
hill tribes of western and
northern Thailand
Northern Thailand, or more specifically Lanna, is geographically characterised by several mountain ranges, which continue from the Shan Hills in bordering Myanmar to Laos, and the river valleys which cut through them. Though like most of Thail ...
, and also
Thais who speak the
Southern Thai language. There has also been a Thaification of the immigrant Indian and Vietnamese populations. Thaification also targeted the
ethnic Malay
Malays ( ms, Orang Melayu, Jawi: أورڠ ملايو) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands that lie between these locations — areas that are col ...
but was perhaps least successful.
Policies
Thaification by the government can be separated into three sets of policies:
Rural development
In the first set of policies, the government targeted specific policies and actions at fringe groups. An example of this is the Accelerated Rural Development Programme of 1964, the Isan component of which included the strengthening of allegiance to
Bangkok
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 in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
and the rest of the country as one of its objectives.
Education
The second set of policies consists of policies applied nationally, but that disproportionately affect fringe groups. One example of this is the prescribed use of
Central Thai language in schools. This had little effect on the central Thai or ''Thai Siam'' who already used the language as a mother tongue, but made bilinguals of speakers of
Isan
Northeast Thailand or Isan ( Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 prov ...
in the northeast, of
Northern Thai
Kam Mueang ( nod, , กำเมือง) or Northern Thai language ( th, ภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ) is the language of the Northern Thai people of Lanna, Thailand. It is a Southwestern Tai language that is closely rela ...
() in the north, and of
Pattani Malay () in the south.
Harsher methods were imposed on the Thai Chinese.
After the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
was founded in 1949, a series of anticommunist Thai military juntas, starting with that of
right-wing dictator Plaek Phibunsongkhram
Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram ( th, แปลก พิบูลสงคราม ; alternatively transcribed as ''Pibulsongkram'' or ''Pibulsonggram''; 14 July 1897 – 11 June 1964), locally known as Marshal P. ( th, จอมพล � ...
, sharply reduced Chinese immigration and prohibited
Chinese school
A Chinese school () is a school that is established for the purpose of teaching the varieties of Chinese (in particular, Mandarin and Cantonese), though the purpose can vary to teaching different aspects of Chinese culture such as Chinese art, ca ...
s in Thailand.
Thai Chinese born after the 1950s had "very limited opportunities to enter Chinese schools".
Those Thai Chinese who could afford to study overseas studied
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
instead of Chinese for economic reasons.
As a result, the Chinese in Thailand have "almost totally lost the language of their ancestors", and are gradually losing their Chinese identity.
Encouraging Thai nationalism
A third set of policies was designed to encourage
Thai nationalism in the nation's peoples. Examples include the promotion of the
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
as a national figurehead, saluting the
flag
A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...
in school and the twice daily broadcasts of the
national anthem
A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...
( th, เพลงชาติ; ) on
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...
and
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
at 08:00 and 18:00 as well as in public spaces. Encouraging Thai nationalism had the intended side effect of discouraging other loyalties, such as that to
Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist s ...
, stemming from the central Thais' fear of Lao cultural and political dominance in the Isan region
and that of Malay ( th, มลายู; ) in the south.
See also
*
Democracy Monument
*
Education in Thailand
*
History of Isan
The history of Isan ( th, อีสาน, ) has been determined by its geography, situated as it is on the Korat Plateau between Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.
The national government claimed that the name "Isan" was derived from Sanskrit '' Īś ...
*
History of Thailand
The Tai ethnic group migrated into mainland Southeast Asia over a period of centuries. The word ''Siam'' ( th, สยาม ) may have originated from Pali (''suvaṇṇabhūmi'', "land of gold") or Sanskrit श्याम (''śyāma'', "dar ...
*
Internal colonialism
*
Mandala (political model)
*
Monthon
''Monthon'' ( th, มณฑล) were administrative subdivisions of Thailand at the beginning of the 20th century. The Thai word ''monthon'' is a translation of the word ''mandala'' (', literally "circle"), in its sense of a type of political for ...
*
Socialization
In sociology, socialization or socialisation (see spelling differences) is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cul ...
*
South Thailand insurgency
The South Thailand insurgency ( th, ความไม่สงบในชายแดนภาคใต้ของประเทศไทย; ms, Pemberontakan di Thailand Selatan) is an ongoing conflict centered in southern Thailand. It ...
*
Tai Tham alphabet
Tai Tham script ('' Tham'' meaning "scripture") is the name given to an abugida writing system used mainly for a group of Southwestern Tai languages i.e., Northern Thai, Tai Lü, Khün and Lao; as well as the liturgical languages of Buddhis ...
*
Thai cultural mandates
The cultural mandates or state decrees ( th, รัฐนิยม; ; literally "state fashion" or "state customs') were a series of twelve edicts issued between 1939 and 1942 by the government of Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggram during his fir ...
*
Thai Exceptionalism
Thai exceptionalism is the belief that Thailand is an exceptional country with an exceptional culture. This view is held by many Thais, particularly the elite. Among unique ideas held are that Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to b ...
*
Thai National Anthem
The Thai National Anthem ( th, เพลงชาติไทย, translit=Phleng chāt Thai ) is the title of Thailand's national anthem, which was adopted in its current form on 10 December 1939. It replaced "Sansoen Phra Barami" in 1932, whi ...
*
Zomia (geography)
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
* "The impact of surveying and map-making in
Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
" in ''Twentieth Century Impressions of Siam; Its History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources...'' Editor in chief: Arnold Wright. Assistant editor: Oliver T. Breakspear. Published 1908 by Lloyds Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd. London
tc.Library of Congress classification: DS565.W
Open LibraryIn Defense of the Thai-Style Democracy Pattana Kitiarsa. Asia Research Institute. National University of Singapore. October 12, 2006. PDF.
{{Ethnic nationalism
Society of Thailand
Social history of Thailand
1933 in Siam
Cultural assimilation
Thai nationalism