Ayutthaya KingdomThe Ayutthaya Kingdom (ɑːˈjuːtəjə; อยุธยา, , IAST: or , ʔā.jút.thā.jāː), the Empire of Ayutthaya (1569–1767), or the Ayutthaya Empire, was a Siamese kingdom that existed in Southeast Asia from 1351 to 1767, centered around the city of Ayutthaya, in Siam, or present-day Thailand. European travellers in the early 16th century called Ayutthaya one of the three great powers of Asia (alongside Vijayanagar and China). The Ayutthaya Kingdom is considered to be the precursor of modern Thailand, and its developments are an important part of the history of Thailand.
AmarindraAmarindra (อมรินทรา, , ; 15 March 1737 – 25 May 1826) was the Queen Consort of King Phutthayotfa Chulalok (Rama I), the founder of the Chakri dynasty. Her birth name was Nak (นาค). She was a daughter of a wealthy Mon from Bang Chang, in Samut Songkhram Province. Nak was born in 1737 to a local patron of Bang Chang named Thong and his wife San. She was then married to Thong Duang the Luang Yokkrabat of Ratchaburi (future Rama I) around 1760 to avoid being taken as a court lady to King Ekathat.
BangkokBangkok, 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 population of 10.539 million as of 2020, 15.3 per cent of the country's population. Over 14 million people (22.2 per cent) lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in both size and importance to the national economy.
Rattanakosin Kingdom (1782–1932)The Rattanakosin Kingdom (อาณาจักรรัตนโกสินทร์, , ʔāːnāːt͡ɕàk ráttāná(ʔ)kōːsǐn, abbreviated as รัตนโกสินทร์, ráttāná(ʔ)kōːsǐn), the Kingdom of Siam, or the Early Bangkok Empire (1767–1851), were names used to reference the fourth and current Thai kingdom in the history of Thailand (then known as Siam). It was founded in 1782 with the establishment of Rattanakosin (Bangkok), which replaced the city of Thonburi as the capital of Siam. This article covers the period until the Siamese revolution of 1932.
Monarchy of ThailandThe monarchy of Thailand refers to the constitutional monarchy of the Kingdom of Thailand (formerly Siam). The king of Thailand; พระมหากษัตริย์ไทย, historically, king of Siam; พระเจ้ากรุงสยาม) is the head of state and head of the ruling Royal House of Chakri. Although the current Chakri Dynasty was created in 1782, the existence of the institution of monarchy in Thailand is traditionally considered to have its roots from the founding of the Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238, with a brief interregnum from the death of Ekkathat to the accession of Taksin in the 18th century.
Pali CanonThe Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school. During the First Buddhist Council, three months after the parinibbana of Gautama Buddha in Rajgir, Ananda recited the Sutta Pitaka, and Upali recited the Vinaya Pitaka. The Arhats present accepted the recitations, and henceforth, the teachings were preserved orally by the Sangha.
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.
SangharajaSangharaja (Pāli: sangha religious community + raja ruler, king, or prince) is the title given in many Theravada Buddhist countries to a senior monk who is the titular head either of a monastic fraternity (nikaya), or of the Sangha throughout the country. This term is often rendered in English as 'Patriarch' or 'Supreme Patriarch'. The position of sangharaja has been assigned according to various methods in different countries and time periods.
Buddhist cosmologyBuddhist cosmology is the description of the shape and evolution of the Universe according to Buddhist scriptures and commentaries. It consists of a temporal and a spatial cosmology. The temporal cosmology describes the timespan of the creation and dissolvement of alternate universes in different aeons. The spatial cosmology consists of a vertical cosmology, the various planes of beings, into which beings are reborn due to their merits and development; and a horizontal cosmology, the distribution of these world-systems into an infinite sheet of existential dimensions included in the cycle of samsara.
Thai poetryPoetry has been featured extensively in Thai literature, and constituted the near-exclusive majority of literary works up to the early Rattanakosin period (early 19th century). Most of imaginative literary works in Thai, before the 19th century, were composed in poetry. Consequently, although many literary works were lost with the sack of Ayutthaya in 1767, Thailand still has a great number of epic poems or long poetic tales -- some with original stories and some with stories drawn from foreign sources.