Dai peopleThe Dai people (Burmese: ရှမ်းလူမျိုး; ᨴᩱ/ᨴᩱ᩠ᨿ; ໄຕ; ไท; တႆး, [tai˥˩]; ᥖᥭᥰ, [tai˥]; ) are several Tai-speaking ethnic groups living in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of China's Yunnan Province. The Dai people form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. By extension, the term can apply to groups in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar when Dai is used to mean specifically Tai Yai, Lue, Chinese Shan, Tai Dam, Tai Khao or even Tai in general.
Cardamom MountainsThe Cardamom Mountains (ជួរភ្នំក្រវាញ, Chuŏr Phnum Krâvanh cuə phnum krɑʋaːɲ; ทิวเขาบรรทัด, Thio Khao Banthat thīw khǎw bān.thát), or the Krâvanh Mountains, is a mountain range in the south west of Cambodia and Eastern Thailand. The majority of the range is within Cambodia. The silhouette of the Cardamom Mountains appears in the provincial seal of Trat Province in Thailand. The mountain range extends along a southeast-northwest axis from Chanthaburi Province in Thailand, and Koh Kong Province in Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand, to the Veal Veang District in Pursat Province, and extends to the southeast by the Dâmrei (Elephant) Mountains.
Buddhism in LaosTheravada Buddhism is the largest religion in Laos, which is practiced by 66% of the population. Lao Buddhism is a unique version of Theravada Buddhism and is at the basis of ethnic Lao culture. Buddhism in Laos is often closely tied to animist beliefs and belief in ancestral spirits, particularly in rural areas. However, Laos is a multi-ethnic country with a large proportion of non-Buddhist groups that adhere to religions that are often subsumed under the denominator "animism", but that can also substantially overlap with Buddhism, or a least contain Buddhist elements resulting from cross-cultural contact.
History of CambodiaThe history of Cambodia, a country in mainland Southeast Asia, can be traced back to Indian civilization. Detailed records of a political structure on the territory of what is now Cambodia first appear in Chinese annals in reference to Funan, a polity that encompassed the southernmost part of the Indochinese peninsula during the 1st to 6th centuries. Centered at the lower Mekong, Funan is noted as the oldest regional Hindu culture, which suggests prolonged socio-economic interaction with maritime trading partners of the Indosphere in the west.
History of ThailandThe Tai ethnic group migrated into mainland Southeast Asia over a period of centuries. The word Siam (สยาม ) may have originated from Pali (suvaṇṇabhūmi, "land of gold") or Sanskrit श्याम (śyāma, "dark") or Mon ရာမည (rhmañña, "stranger"), probably the same root as Shan and Ahom. Xianluo () was the Chinese name for Ayutthaya Kingdom, merged from Suphannaphum city state centered in modern-day Suphan Buri and Lavo city state centered in modern-day Lop Buri. To the Thai, the name has mostly been Mueang Thai.
Royal Ploughing CeremonyThe Royal Ploughing Ceremony (ព្រះរាជពិធីបុណ្យច្រត់ព្រះនង្គ័ល ; වප් මඟුල් Vap Magula; พระราชพิธีจรดพระนังคัลแรกนาขวัญ Phra Ratcha Phithi Charot Phra Nangkhan Raek Na Khwan), also known as The Ploughing Festival, is an ancient royal rite held in many Asian countries to mark the traditional beginning of the rice growing season. The royal ploughing ceremony, called Lehtun Mingala (, lɛ̀thʊ̀ɰ̃ mɪ̀ɰ̃ɡəlà) or Mingala Ledaw (), was also practiced in pre-colonial Burma until 1885 when the monarchy was abolished.
Sihanoukville (city)Sihanoukville (siːˈhənʊkvɪl; ក្រុងព្រះសីហនុ, Krŏng Preăh Seihănŭ kroŋ prĕəh səjhanuʔ), also known as Kampong Som (កំពង់សោម, Kâmpóng Saôm kɑmpɔŋ saom), is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital of Preah Sihanouk Province, at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west on the Gulf of Thailand. The city is flanked by an almost uninterrupted string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering the Ream National Park in the east.
IndosphereIndosphere is a term coined by the linguist James Matisoff for areas of Indian linguistic and cultural influence in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is commonly used in areal linguistics in contrast with Sinosphere. Sprachbund The Tibeto-Burman family of languages, which extends over a huge geographic range, is characterized by great typological diversity, comprising languages that range from the highly tonal, monosyllabic, analytic type with practically no affixational morphology, like the Loloish languages, to marginally tonal or atonal languages with complex systems of verbal agreement morphology, like the Kiranti group of Nepal.
