Narathiwat is one of the southern provinces (changwat) of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Yala and Pattani. To the south it borders the Malaysian state of Kelantan and Perak. The southern railway line ends in this province, which is one of the nation's four provinces that border Malaysia. The province features a range of cultures as well as natural resources, and is relatively fertile. Narathiwat is about 1,140 kilometers south of Bangkok and has an area of 4,475 km2 (1,728 sq mi). Seventy-five percent of the area is jungle and mountains and has a tropical climate.
The Dvaravati was an ancient Mon kingdom from the 7th century to the 11th century that was located in the region now known as central Thailand. It was described by the Chinese pilgrim Hsuan-tsang in the middle of the 7th century as a Buddhist kingdom named "To-lo-po-ti" situated to the west of Isanapura (Cambodia) and to the east of Sri Ksetra (Burma). Dvaravati also refers to a culture, an art style, and a disparate conglomeration of principalities of Mon people. Archaeological research over the past two decades or so has revealed the presence of a "Proto-Dvaravati" period which spans the 4th to 5th centuries, and perhaps earlier.
Mom Rajawongse Kukrit Pramoj was a Thai politician, scholar and professor. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives of Thailand 1973–1974. He was the thirteenth Prime Minister of Thailand, serving in office from 1975 to 1976 between Seni Pramoj, his brother's, terms. Being the great-grandson of King Rama II, he was a member of the Thai royal family. He also portrayed the Prime Minister of the fictional country of "Sarkhan" in the 1963 motion picture The Ugly American with Marlon Brando.
Luang Por Dattajivo, also known by his birth name Phadet Phongsawat and former ecclesiastical title Phrarajbhavanajahn, is a Thai Buddhist monk. He is the former deputy-abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya and the vice-president of the Dhammakaya Foundation, and was the observing abbot of the temple from 1999 until 2006, and again from 2011 until 2016. As of December 2016, he was still widely considered the de facto abbot. He met Mae chi (nun) Chandra Khonnokyoong and Luang Por Dhammajayo in his student years, and they have been his teachers throughout his life.
Ma Huan, courtesy name Zongdao, pen name Mountain-woodcutter (會稽山樵), was a Chinese voyager and translator who accompanied Admiral Zheng He on three of his seven expeditions to the Western Oceans. Ma was a Muslim and was born in Zhejiang's Kuaiji Commandery, an area within the modern borders of Shaoxing. He knew several Classical Chinese and Buddhist texts. He learned Arabic to be able to translate.
A prang is a tall tower-like spire, usually richly carved. They were a common shrine element of Hindu and Buddhist architecture in the Khmer Empire (802-1431). They were later adapted by Buddhist builders in Thailand, especially during the Ayutthaya Kingdom (1350–1767) and Rattanakosin Kingdom (1782–1932). In Thailand it appears only with the most important Buddhist temples.
Chart Korbjitti is a Thai writer.
Vincent Calvino is a fictional Bangkok-based private eye created by Christopher G. Moore in the Vincent Calvino Private Eye series. Vincent Calvino first appeared in 1992 in Spirit House, the first novel in the series. His latest appearance is in Jumpers, the 16th novel in the series published in October 2016. "Hewn from the hard-boiled Dashiell Hammett/Raymond Chandler model, Calvino is a tough, somewhat tarnished hero with a heart of gold."
James Arthur Moore is an American horror novelist and short story writer.
Colin Cotterill is a London-born teacher, author, comic book writer and cartoonist. Cotterill has dual English and Australian citizenship. He lives in Thailand, where he writes the award-winning Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery series set in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and the Jimm Juree crime novels set in southern Thailand.
Pongsri Woranuch is a Thai singer. She first became a star in the 1950s with the orchestra of Suraphon Sombatjalern, practicing music in the style of luk thung. Soon she became the first singer to be called "queen of luk thung". Woranut melded the style of traditional Thai folk music to music from outside the region, including various genres of East Asian music, Latin American music, and American country music and film music. Alongside Suraphon Sombatjalern, she is considered one of the most important of this genre's practitioners. In 1992, she became the second luk thung artist awarded the title of Thai National Artist.
Herbert Warington Smyth CMG, LLM, FGS, FRGS, was a British traveller, writer, naval officer and mining engineer who served the government of Siam and held several important posts in the Union of South Africa.
Washington Square was an entertainment area in Bangkok, Thailand, located for many years at Sukhumvit Soi 22, near the Phrom Phong skytrain station. It contained bars, restaurants, massage parlors and a katoey theatre. Popular mainly with Bangkok expatriates, Middle East oil field workers and older, male, white Americans including many Vietnam War veterans, Bourbon Street was well known for serving Cajun and Creole food and was written up by the Bangkok Post in 2005.
Narisa Chakrabongse is a writer, a publisher, an environmental activist. The only daughter of Prince Chula Chakrabongse, the only granddaughter of Prince Chakrabongse and his Ukrainian wife Katerina Desnitskaya, a grand granddaughter of the Siamese King Rama V the Great. Her official title is Mom Rajawongse.
Thai ceramics refers to ceramic art and pottery designed or produced as a form of Thai art. The tradition of Thai ceramics dates back to the third millennium BCE. Much of Thai pottery and ceramics in the later centuries was influenced by Chinese ceramics, but has always remained distinct by mixing indigenous styles with preferences for unique shapes, colors and decorative motifs. Thai pottery and ceramics were an essential part of the trade between Thailand and its neighbors during feudalistic times, throughout many dynasties.
Mae Chai is a small town and subdistrict (tambon) in Mae Chai District, in Phayao Province, Thailand. It is the principal town in the district. The town is split with tambon Si Thoi. As of 2005, it has a population of 5,094 people. It is in the northwestern part of the province not far from the border with Lampang Province. It lies along National Road 1, and is connected by road to Phayao in the south. To the north along the highway are Pa Faek and then Mae Yen across into Chiang Rai Province. The tambon has 10 villages under its jurisdiction. It lies partly within Mae Puem National Park. Mae Chai River is the river running through the area.
Jake Raymond Needham is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is a frequent speaker at schools and universities throughout Asia and guest on Asian television and radio networks. His English-language crime and espionage novels are set in Asia, which offers realism and authenticity to the narrative. Bangkok Post called Needham "Michael Connelly with steamed rice." Asia Business magazine said that "Needham certainly knows where some bodies are buried," and Matt Crook] said on CNN Travel that "Needham's stories have a 'ripped from the headlines' feel."
The ordination hall is a Buddhist building specifically consecrated and designated for the performance of the Buddhist ordination ritual (upasampada) and other ritual ceremonies, such as the recitation of the Patimokkha. The ordination hall is located within a boundary that defines "the space within which all members of a single local community have to assemble as a complete Sangha at a place appointed for ecclesiastical acts ." The constitution of the sīmā is regulated and defined by the Vinaya and its commentaries and sub-commentaries.
The Chao Mae Tuptim shrine is a phallic shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, located behind the Swissôtel Bangkok hotel near the bank of the Khlong Saen Saep. The shrine was created in the first quarter of the 20th century by Thai businessman Nai Lert (1872-1945), who found a spirit house floating in the klong and placed it on the bank of his property. In Thailand, the phallus is considered to be a symbol of good luck and also a representative of fertility. The shrine is one of the best examples of intentional phallic architecture in the world. The site, which measures roughly 60 by 70 feet, is now "crammed with carved" wooden circumcised penis statues, which are said to possess special cosmic powers and endow good fortune and fertility on anybody coming into contact with them. The size of the penis statues, which number well over 100, is said to range "[from] the size of a cream doughnut to the size of a canoe"; some are huge, some are humorous and painted pink to closely resemble a human phallus.
The Chaloem Sawan 58 Bridge was a bridge crossing the northern end of Khlong Khu Mueang Doem ), or old moat, in Phra Nakhon District, Bangkok. The bridge, built in the axis of Phra Athit Road (Thai: ถนนพระอาทิตย์), was opened on 23 October 1912 by King Vajiravudh, two years after his father's death, King Chulalongkorn. Last structure to be built of the Chaloem Bridges Series, which numbered seventeen, it "was dedicated to King Rama Vby King Rama VIon his father's 58th birthday".
