Dating back to the Neolithic civilization situated at the
modern-day UNESCO World Heritage Site in Ban Chiang, the history
of Thailand is long, proud, and fairly well documented. Over the
early centuries of the Common Era, tribes of Mon, Khmer, and Tai
peoples established realms within the borders of modern
Thailand; the Mon speaking Buddhist civilization of Dvaravati in
the first millennium giving way to the Khmer empire of Angkor by
the turn of the second millennium. However, the history of
Thailand as we know it began when the kingdoms of Lan Na (Chiang
Rai/Chiang Mai) and Sukhothai, the first truly independent Thai
Kingdoms, established highly developed societies in the North
and Central regions of Thailand in the 13th and 14th centuries.
The Kingdom of Ayutthaya, which was heavily influenced by the
Khmer’s of Angkor, eventually conquered neighboring Sukhothai
and dominated the region for the next several hundred years of
Thai history. Unfortunately, first Chaing Mai and then Ayutthaya
were overrun by Bur