Editing Thaification

{{Short description|Assimilation to Thai culture}}
{{refimprove|date=November 2012}}
[[Image:Lanna cm2.jpg|thumb|300px|A name board on a [[wat]] in [[Chiang Mai]] written in the [[Tai Tham alphabet]] ("[[Lan Na]] alphabet", {{lang|th|อักษรธรรมล้านนา}}). The use of this script was discouraged and the [[Northern Thai language]] is now written with the [[Thai alphabet]].]]

'''Thaification''', or '''Thai-ization''', is the process by which people of different cultural and ethnic origins living in [[Thailand]] become [[cultural assimilation|assimilated]] to the country's dominant culture:, that of [[central Thailand]].

Thaification was a step in the creation in the 20th century of the Thai [[nation state]] in which [[Thai people|Central Thai people]] occupy a dominant position, as opposed to the historically-multicultural kingdom of [[Siam]]. A related term, "[[Thainess]]", describes the particular characteristics that distinguish the Thai from others.

==Motives==
Thaification is a byproduct of the [[nationalist]] policies mandated by the Thai state after the [[Siamese coup d'état of 1933]]. The coup leaders, said to be inspired by [[Western world|Western]] ideas of an exclusive [[nation state]], acted more in accordance with their close German nationalist and anti-democratic counterparts to effect kingdom-wide dominance by the Central Thai culture. Minority-owned businesses, like the traditionally-merchant [[Thai Chinese]] were aggressively acquired by the state, which gave preferential contracts to [[Thai people|ethnic Central Thais]] and cooperative ethnic Chinese.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Colonial Legacies: Economic and Social Development in East and Southeast Asia|first=Anne|last=Booth|publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]]|year=2007|page=122}}</ref>

Thai identity was mandated via 12 [[Thai cultural mandates]] and reinforced in the heartlands and in rural areas. [[Central Thailand]] became economically and politically dominant, and Central Thai, unlike the multilingual Siam, became the state-mandated language of the [[Media of Thailand|media]], 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 identifying as Thai. Central Thai culture, being the culture of wealth and status, made it hugely attractive to a once-diverse population that sought to be identified with [[nationalist]] unity.

==Targets==
The main targets of Thaification were [[Thai Chinese|ethnic Chinese]] and other [[Ethnic groups in Thailand|ethnic groups]] on the edges of the kingdom, geographically and culturally: the [[Lao people|Lao]] of [[Isan]] (อีสาน),<ref>{{cite news|last1=Ganjanakhundee|first1=Supalak|title=Lao are lazy: The problem with 'Thai superiority'|url=https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30296890|access-date=6 October 2016|work=The Nation|date=5 October 2016|format=Opinion}}</ref> the [[Hill tribe (Thailand)|hill tribes]] of western and [[northern Thailand]], and also [[Thai people|Thais]] who speak the [[Southern Thai language]]. There has also been a Thaification of the immigrant Indian and Vietnamese populations. Thaification also targeted the [[Malays in Thailand|ethnic Malay]] but was perhaps least successful.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ivanoff|first=Jacques|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F_RKmwEACAAJ|title=The Cultural Roots of Violence in Malay Southern Thailand: Comparative Mythology; Soul of Rice|publisher=White Lotus Company Limited|year=2010|isbn=9789744801623 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Haji Umar|first1=Umaiyah|title=The Assimilation of Bangkok-Melayu Communities in the Bangkok Metropolis and Surrounding Areas|date=2003|publisher=Umaiyah Haji Umar |isbn=9789749121344}}</ref>

==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]] 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 [[Thai language|Central Thai]] language in schools. This had little or no effect on the central Thais, or the Siamese people, who already used the language as a native but made bilinguals of speakers of [[Isan language|Isan]] in the northeast, of [[Northern Thai language|Northern Thai]] ({{lang|th|คำเมือง}}) in the north and of [[Pattani Malay]] ({{lang|th|ยาวี}}) in the south.

Harsher methods were imposed on the Thai Chinese.<ref name=Identities>{{Cite book|title=Alternate Identities: The Chinese of Contemporary Thailand|author=Tong, Chee Kiong|author2=Chan, Kwok Bun |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=2001|pages=170–177}}</ref> After the [[China|People's Republic of China]] was founded in 1949, a series of anticommunist Thai military juntas, starting with that of [[right-wing dictatorship|right-wing dictator]] [[Plaek Phibunsongkhram]], sharply reduced Chinese immigration and prohibited [[Chinese schools]] in Thailand.<ref name=Identities /> Thai Chinese born after the 1950s had "very limited opportunities to enter Chinese schools".<ref name="Identities" /> Those Thai Chinese who could afford to study overseas studied [[English language|English]], instead of [[Mandarin Chinese]] for economic reasons.<ref name="Identities" /> As a result, the Chinese in Thailand have "almost totally [[Language shift|lost the language]] of their ancestors" and are gradually losing their Chinese identity.<ref name="Identities" />

===Encouraging Thai nationalism===
A third set of policies was designed to encourage [[Thai nationalism]] in the nation's peoples such as the promotion of the [[Monarchy of Thailand|king]] as a national figurehead and saluting the [[Flag of Thailand|flag]] in school and the twice-daily broadcasts of the [[Thai National Anthem|national anthem]] ({{langx|th|เพลงชาติ}}; {{rtgs|''phleng chat''}}) on [[radio]] and [[television]] 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]], stemming from the central Thais' fear of Lao cultural and political dominance in the Isan region<ref>{{cite book|last1=Reyland|first1=William|title=Sons of Isan|date=2009|publisher=Booksmango|isbn=978-6162450655|page=47|edition=Google Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-P6a6KL3PcC&q=%22the+influence+and+predominance+of+Lao+culture+in+the+twentieth+century+prompted+the+Thai+government+to+assert+its+control+over+Isan+through+a+program+termed%22&pg=PA47|access-date=13 May 2015}}</ref> and that of Malay ({{langx|th|มลายู}}; {{rtgs|''malayu''}}) in the south.

==See also==
{{Portal|Thailand}}
* [[Democracy Monument]]
* [[Education in Thailand]]
* [[History of Isan]]
* [[History of Thailand]]
* [[Internal colonialism]]
* [[Lan Na]]
* [[Mandala (political model)]]
* [[Monthon]]
* [[Socialization]]
* [[South Thailand insurgency]]
* [[Tai Tham alphabet]]
* [[Thai cultural mandates]]
* [[Thai Exceptionalism]]
* [[Thai National Anthem]]
* [[Zomia (geography)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author=Thongchai Winichakul|author-link=Thongchai Winichakul|title=Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TJEK4sHPlUsC|year=1994|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-1974-3}}
* {{cite book|last=Wyatt|first=David K.|author-link=David K. Wyatt|title=Thailand: A Short History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8YBujWXwkakC&pg=PR2|year=2003|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-08475-7}}

==External links==
* "The impact of surveying and map-making in [[Rattanakosin Kingdom|Siam]]" 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 [etc.] Library of Congress classification: DS565.W7 [https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7126916M/Twentieth_century_impressions_of_Siam Open Library]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721013849/http://inetapps.nus.edu.sg/ari/showfile.asp?eventfileid=188 In Defense of the Thai-Style Democracy]. Pattana Kitiarsa. Asia Research Institute. National University of Singapore. October 12, 2006. PDF.

{{Cultural assimilation}}
{{Ethnic nationalism}}

[[Category:Society of Thailand]]
[[Category:Social history of Thailand]]
[[Category:1933 in Siam]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Thailand| ]]
[[Category:Cultural assimilation]]
[[Category:Thai nationalism]]