Essay on Thailand: An Outstanding Essay on Thailand

Next to Myanmar, Thailand is the second largest country on the Southeast Asian mainland. Its territory of 198,115 sq. miles (over 513,117 sq. km) shelters a population of over 62 million. Geography and history have conspired to make the country a unique nation. There has been a major Thai state in the present territory of Thai­land for the last six hundred years, and the country is one of the very few in Asia to have escaped European colonialism.

Lying off the major historic sea lanes, it was spared the influences that shaped the mari­time world to the south and east—notably the Muslim religion and the European rule. Thailand has thus acted as a buffer be­tween the conflicting interests of France and England for control of the region, and partly because of this competition suc­ceeded in preserving its independence during the European colonial partition of Southeast Asia.

The monarchy became and remains a potent symbol of the country’s historical continuity and national identity. For over a century, the country has prac­ticed a neutral stance in world affairs, and its post-1950 dependence on the West is a sharp break with tradition.

The non-colonial development of the economy is illustrated by the fact that em­phasis was placed almost entirely on non-estate agriculture except for the rub­ber plantations in the southern peninsula. The great rubber, tea, coffee, coconut, palm, and other plantation estates of Indo­nesia, the Philippines and Indonesia are conspicuously absent in the nation as has been the European and American capital.

It is only in the exploitation in tin extrac­tion in its peninsula region and in the growing manufacturing sector that the American and European involvement has been significant. Thailand, for a long time, remained neglected by the West, partly be­cause the colonial powers were engaged elsewhere, and due in part to Thailand’s lo­cation off the historic routes of maritime trade.

Physical Characteristics:

Thailand’s physical configuration is simple: a south- facing river basin enclosed on the west, north and the southeast by mountains, and a long, slender peninsular finger in the south. The northern and western moun­tains are the southward continuation of the complex mountain system of the Hi­malayas from eastern Tibet curving to the south that, in part, form the boundary be­tween southern Myanmar and Thailand.

These mountains are a series of north- south ranges, rise to nearly 8,000 feet (2,440 meters), and trend southward into Malaysia. To the north are the hills and dissected plateau region of Myanmar that contains caves from which remains of pre­historic humans have been excavated.

The Khorat Plateau in the northeast covers a third of the country that gently tilts to­ward the east, and lies in the drainage of the Mekong. The Plateau is enclosed on the west and south by low, linear hills. Surface elevations on the Khorat range from 650 feet (198 meters) in the north­west to 300 feet in the southeast.

Lying between the northern and western moun­tain ranges and the Khorat Plateau is a sizable Chao Phraya River basin, which is the cultural and economic heartland of the country, known also as the Central Low­lands. This region consists of rolling plains in the north and a low-lying flood plain and delta of the Chao Phraya formed by the large deposits of alluvium brought by the tributaries of the rivers.

The alluvial deposits of the river valleys are the most fertile in Thailand, as these are replenished year after year with river sediments swol­len with annual monsoon rains. The topography of the peninsular arm is roll­ing to mountainous, with little flat land. Higher mountains rise to about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) on the west, off the rugged and indented coast, lie several small is­lands, including the Phuketl Island, which is rich in tin.

The climate of Thailand may be de­scribed as tropical monsoonal. The major influences are the country’s location in the tropics, monsoon zone and the topo­graphic features affect the distribution of rainfall. In early May the southwest mon­soons flow from the Indian Ocean, and bring large amounts of rainfall, which reaches a maximum in September.

The wind system is reversed between Novem­ber and February, when a northeast monsoon brings cool, dry air. Occasion­ally, typhoons may come across the China Sea and bring some rain but fades out across Thailand. The amount of rainfall varies from 40 inches to 120 (1,016 to 3,048 mm) in the various parts of the country.

In the southern peninsular region a dry sea­son seldom occurs and receives as much as 160 inches of precipitation annually, whereas Bangkok gets 55 inches (1,397 mm) and Khorat, sheltered by hills on all sides even less than 30 inches (762 min) and almost the whole of the peninsular region receives over 80 inches distributed throughout the year. Temperatures are, in general, moderate to high, averaging be­tween 77° and 84°F (25° and 29°C).

The season of highest temperatures is in late March, April and early May. In central, peninsular and southeastern Thailand, maximum temperatures seldom reach 100°F (37.7°C), while minimum tempera­tures are lower than 65°F (18.3°C). In northern Thailand, temperature range tends to be much larger.

Soils of the river valleys are fertile, and the most fertile land IS in the flood plains of the lower Chao Phraya basin because it receives large amounts of the rich, alluvial deposits of soil every year. Relatively flat areas else­where and parts of the coast also have fertile soils. Elsewhere, soils tend to be poor, highly leached laterites of the humid tropics.

Cultural Patterns:

Among Southeast Asian countries, Thailand is the most iden­tity-conscious nation. Relatively homo­geneous, the country does not possess the multiplicity of languages found in Indone­sia and the Philippines, nor contains a complex ethnic mix as in Malaysia. Eighty- five percent of the population speaks Thai, which is a member of a large cluster of lan­guages spoken in all bordering countries as well as southern China and northern Viet­nam.

Like the people of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, the Thais are Bud­dhists of the Theravada school. In 1991 ninety-five percent of the population was listed as adhering to Buddhism. The mi­norities include Muslims (who account for four percent of the population), Hindus, Sikhs, and a few Christians, which are con­centrated chiefly around Bangkok. The national government plays down regional loyalties, and the Thai language is taught in schools throughout the country.

Non-Thais number nearly 12 million or 20 percent of the population. The larg­est ethnic minority, comprising over 8 million or 12 percent of the total popula­tion are Chinese, who have been assimilated to a far greater degree than in either Malaysia or Indonesia. There are no barriers to intermarriage, and most have embraced Thailand’s Buddhism.

The next largest minority is that of Malays, who profess the Muslim faith, and are largely concentrated in the southern peninsular neck of the country close to the Malaysian border. In the northern and northwestern part of the country along the Myanmar border are several hill peo­ple—the tribal groups, chief of which are Karens, and Shans (numbering over one million each). Most are shifting cultivators.

Also included among Thailand’s minori­ties are Vietnamese, who moved and settled in the northeastern part of the country in the 1940s and 1950s to escape Indo-China war with the French, and Khmers (Cambodians) who fled their homeland as refugees after the 1979 Viet­namese invasion of Cambodia.

Such border areas inhibited by the minority groups in the north, northwest, northeast and the southern peninsula are imperfectly integrated into the Thai state, and are eco­nomically backward as well. The Thais dominate the lowlands, and there are lay­ers of non-Thai people in the mountainous borderlands.

Economic Activity:

Traditionally, ag­riculture has been the dominant sector of Thailand’s economy. Although through government encouragement to small in­dustry, its contributions to economic growth have declined consistently since 1950. The proportion of the agricultural la­bor force has declined from 88 percent in the 1950s to less than 50 percent.

Agricul­ture’s contribution to the national economy relative to manufacturing has also declined from more than 50 percent in the 1950s to less than 11 percent in the 1999. Despite this shift to manufacturing, agricultural production has continued to expand, and Thai farmers continue to pro­duce enough rice for the country’s needs as well as a surplus for export.

Today, Thailand is the world’s fifth largest producer of rice and its largest ex­porter (exporting one-third to a quarter of rice exports of the world). Agriculture is overwhelmingly associated with rice culti­vation, and close to ninety percent of the country’s cultivable area is given to it, nearly one-half of which lies in the Chao Phraya basin where the flood waters of the river provide irrigation and silt-laden fer­tile soils to the fields.

During the 1960s movement toward crop diversification be­came popular and the farmers began growing such other export crops as maize, sugarcane, pineapples, tobacco, coconuts, and kenaf (a substitute for jute) on a larger scale than before.

These crops have since been slowly acquiring greater prominence. In addition, large quantities of vegetables and fruits are also grown. Cattle breeding are important in the Central plains, and pigs and poultry are widely raised. Fishing is also of considerable importance, and con­stitutes a growing export commodity. Rubber production—introduced into the country during the 19th century—is im­portant in the southern, peninsular section.

Thailand ranks third in the world in natural rubber production. It produces nearly one-sixth of the world’s production of hardwoods—particularly teak. Its major forest products are now exported in small quantities, following a government ban on logging imposed in 1989.

Mining constitutes a small segment of nation’s economy, with only 0.2 of labor- force engaged in it and contributing less than 2 percent to the domestic gross prod­uct. Tin, mined mostly in the peninsula, has long been a valuable mineral resource, and the country has become one of the world’s largest tin producers, producing on the average about one-tenth of the world’s total output. Coal, zinc, gypsum, tungsten, and limestone are some other minerals produced.

The manufacturing sector has dramati­cally grown during the last four decades, representing primarily the large invest­ments made by private firms; the larger ones have been financed by foreign and Thai capital. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have been the major sources of investment for industry that is particu­larly oriented to producing consumer goods such as clothing, canned goods, and electrical products. Japanese capital is in­creasingly invested in the manufacture of textiles and machinery.

At the same time, growth of the traditional, factory-type in­dustry including that of rice milling, sugar and timber, the manufacture of tobacco, jute sacks and cement as the production of textiles (especially based on silk), clothing, furniture, and footwear owned primarily by domestic investors has also registered substantial gains. Factory industry is heav­ily concentrated in the Bangkok area.

Thailand’s imports include electrical machinery, minerals and fuels, iron and steel, vehicles, plastics, and organic chemi­cals—items necessary for its growing industrialization and domestic needs. Its major exports in the mid-1990s in the cate­gory of manufactured items were electric machinery, textiles and apparel, and nu­clear reactors that collectively accounted for nearly forty percent of all exports, whereas the traditional exports of rice, tin, rubber, and teak made up for nearly 22 percent of the nation’s export earnings.

Physical and Economic Regionalism:

Physically, and economically, Thailand is composed of several distinctive natural units, although the key area is the central lowland, the plain of the Chao Phraya, which accounts for about one-fifth of the country’s territory and two-fifths of its population. This is the area of most com­pact Thai settlement and most important agriculture.

Population densities are high­est of any region: over 600 persons per sq. mile (230 persons per sq. km). It was for­merly forested but now consists of unbroken paddy (rice) fields. Soils are ex­tremely fertile, composed of rich alluvium brought by the river. Despite receiving a relatively low total rainfall of a little over 50 inches (1,250 millimeters) a year, it is the country’s agricultural heartland and the rice basket.

Cassava, maize and other crops are also grown here. For most of the nation’s history, the capital has been lo­cated here and the people of the central lowland have been the dominant group in the country. Most of Thailand’s commercial, indus­trial, and service industries are located in the central lowland, focused largely on Bangkok, the capital.

The most important theme of the nation’s modern history has been the steady concentration of political authority and economic power in a cen­tralized government and at a single place: Bangkok, the capital (population 5.6 mil­lion), which has come to concentrate all facets of Thai life to a remarkable degree unsurpassed elsewhere.

In the process, the city grew to be a classic example of a “pri­mate city,” collecting nearly 10 percent of the national population; its metropolitan area is nearly 30 times larger than the next biggest city—Nakhon Ratchasima 250 miles to the northeast in the Khorat Pla­teau. Containing more than 300 Buddhist temples, the royal place, and other cultural attractions, it is a tourist Mecca.

Most of the country’s trade passes through its port, and the manufacturing sector is growing rapidly. Chiang Mai (population: 1.6 mil­lion) located in the north, is another tourist center outside the capital. The vast northeastern region, sepa­rated from Laos by the Mekong River, is the plateau area of Khorat. Not blessed with the fertile soils and adequate precipi­tation of the central plains, it is the poorest area of Thailand, and contains about eight million people who are officially desig­nated as living in poverty.

Like the northern region, this area had a history of semi-autonomy until the late 19th century. The people speak a language similar to the Lao, and have often displayed discontent with the central Thai administration, which has recently been trying to bring them into the national fold. The long peninsular tail to the south which joins central Thailand with Malaysia is less fer­tile, but is the country’s major rubber-growing and tin producing region.

Prospects:

Thailand has recorded some of Southeast Asia’s most impressive eco­nomic gains (averaging between 6 and 7 percent a year) during the last three dec­ades. The fastest expansion has been seen in the manufacturing, service and trading sectors. Domestic markets have expanded and production of such commodities as ce­ment, soft drinks and textiles has continued to grow. American military ex­penditure during the 1960s and 1970s and Japanese investments further bolstered the economy.

Between 1950 and 1970 a rapidly grow­ing population particularly in the Central lowlands and around Bangkok had caused great concern, and the administration which had previously supported popula­tion growth reversed its policies. Since 1970s the family planning programs of the government helped to substantially reduce the population growth rates, which now stand at 0.9 percent a year at nearly one- third of those prevailing during the 1960s and 1970s.

The country is now a model for other developing nations seeking to reduce their rates of population increase. How­ever, a third of Thailand’s population belongs to the youthful age group (be­tween 20 and 40) that creates high demands on the nation’s education, hous­ing, health and employment systems, but the government is trying to utilize its highly literate human resource (with a lit­eracy rate of over 90 percent) for economic development.