Thailand Ethnic Map

Posted on 12/1/2005 by Curzon

Thailand’s not a country I think of as having an ethnic divide (although I’ve long understood “Greater Cambodia”), but this map suggests otherwise.

Thai Ethnic Map

Click for a larger map.

About Curzon

Lord George Nathaniel Curzon (1859 - 1925) entered the British House of Commons as a Conservative MP in 1886, where he served as undersecretary of India and Foreign Affairs. He was appointed Viceroy of India at the turn of the 20th century where he delineated the North West Frontier Province, ordered a military expedition to Tibet, and unsuccessfully tried to partition the province of Bengal during his six-year tenure. Curzon served as Leader of the House of Lords in Prime Minister Lloyd George's War Cabinet and became Foreign Secretary in January 1919, where his most famous act was the drawing of the Curzon Line between a new Polish state and Russia. His publications include Russia in Central Asia (1889) and Persia and the Persian Question (1892). In real life, "Curzon" is a US citizen from the East Coast who has been a financial analyst, freelance translator, and university professor; he is currently on assignment in Tokyo.
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10 Responses to Thailand Ethnic Map

  1. dan nexon says:
    12/1/2005 at 5:36 pm

    James Scott, author of many important books (e.g., Seeing Like a State and Weapons of the Weak), gave a talk about ethnic variation in Southeast Asia at the Mershon Center a few weeks ago.

    He argued, in essence, that these maps make a lot more sense if one includes topography; ethnic stratification correlates with elevation, and tends to represent cultural rather than biological communities. He tied this argument to the patterns of political institutions (states based upon slavery and intensive exploitation) in Southeast Asia over the long period prior to European conquest and colonization. Interesting stuff.

  2. Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace says:
    12/1/2005 at 6:53 pm

    I’d be fascinated to understand how this became one country…. we know it was not a European colony, but how long has Thailand been this size and shape?

  3. lirelou says:
    12/2/2005 at 1:47 am

    Dr. Alfred. By military conquest. Last war fought was with the French in 1940-41 to seize parts of eastern Cambodia (Battambang), which were returned to French Indochina in the late 40s. You don’t have to travel far out of Bangkok to start finding Khmer ruins. (i.e., Lop Buri, Attuhaya, etc)

  4. Curzon says:
    12/2/2005 at 2:17 am

    Well, Cambodia historically stretched from the -East- South China Sea to northern Malaysia — but Siam/Thailand has “basically had the same borders”:http://www.cominganarchy.com/2005/09/29/buffer-states-part-4-thailand/ for the past 500 years.

  5. Moses Touch says:
    12/2/2005 at 4:55 am

    If you look back into history, you’ll clearly understand that Cambodia was once a mighty empire which was known as khmer empire. This Khmer Empire stretch from the East China Sea to Northern Malaysia. Not only in Khmer history does this fact been recorded by also in Thai history. Evidences can be seen through various Khmer temple and monuments that the Khmer king has build. Therefore, where ever khmer style temple is lies, that’s where Khmer land is upto. This is not a view but a fact. But today, Cambodia has lost it’s empire glory and have been torn apart but it’s aggressive neighbors and internal political dispute as well. But I believe that one day this empire will rise up and bring back the glorious days it once experienced.

  6. sun bin says:
    12/2/2005 at 6:00 pm

    do you mean SOUTH china sea? :)

  7. Dan says:
    12/2/2005 at 11:28 pm

    Curzon,

    Don’t back down. Thailand will rule the East China Sea again!

    :-)

    That said, it’s intersting that the British occupation of Siam’s old Indian Ocean lands might have helped rationalize the borders, as those folk seem to be Sino-Tibetan, not Tai.

  8. xiwangmu says:
    12/3/2005 at 7:15 am

    “You don’t have to travel far out of Bangkok to start finding Khmer ruins.”

    It is said that if you drive down Sukhumvit road all the way, you will reach the border with Cambodia. Though it’s mystifying why anyone would want to go further than the Hermes shop at Emporium or the new Thonglor playground.
    The term northern Malaysia is asmisleading as those maps showing the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia as a Chinese linguistic enclave and the east coast as Buddhist dominated (it’s Muslim majority).
    That border hasn’t been there 500 years. Up till British times, Kedah in the northwestern part of Peninsular was a tribute state of Siam, and even today, the Chinese-dominated island of Penang also has elements of Thai influence.
    There were many Hindu-influenced kingdoms in SouthEast Asia, including in the peninsula (though today’s history books will not admit that) and up to Cambodia, but the Malaysian kingdoms did not come under the formal rule of the Khmer kingdom.

  9. lirelou says:
    12/5/2005 at 2:06 am

    For all: Some of the best research in SEA was done under the aegis of the “Ecole Fraicaise d’Extreme Orient”, once centered in Hanoi, and now back in France. They have a web site ar http://www.efeo.fr. Unfortunately, I cannot open a related site that contains past issues of their bulletin. The U.S. Army once published a “Minority Groups of Thailand” pamphlet (Ethnographic Studies Series) that had a lot of great information. Unfortunately, mine has long disappeared.

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