Lan Xang or Lancang was a Lao kingdom that held the area of present-day Laos from 1353 to 1707. For three and a half centuries, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The kingdom is the basis for Laos's national historic and cultural identity.
Thai literature is the literature of the Thai people, almost exclusively written in the Thai language. Most of imaginative literary works in Thai, before the 19th century, were composed in poetry. Prose was reserved for historical records, chronicles, and legal documents. Consequently, the poetical forms in the Thai language are both numerous and highly developed. The corpus of Thailand's pre-modern poetic works is large. Thus, although many literary works were lost with the sack of Ayutthaya in 1767, Thailand still possesses a large number of epic poems or long poetic tales —some with original stories and some with stories drawn from foreign sources. There is thus a sharp contrast between the Thai literary tradition and that of other East Asian literary traditions, such as Chinese and Japanese, where long poetic tales are rare and epic poems are almost non-existent. The Thai classical literature exerted a considerable influence on the literature of neighboring countries in mainland Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia and Burma.
Thai people are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Thailand. In a narrower and ethnic sense, the Thais are also a Tai ethnic group dominant in Central and Southern Thailand. Part of the larger Tai ethno-linguistic group native to Southeast Asia as well as Southern China and Northeast India, Thais speak the Sukhothai languages, which is classified as part of the Kra–Dai family of languages. The majority of Thais are followers of Theravada Buddhism.
Mueang, Muang, Mong, Meng or Mường (Vietnamese) were pre-modern semi-independent city-states or principalities in mainland Southeast Asia, adjacent regions of Northeast India and Southern China, including what is now Thailand, Laos, Burma, Cambodia, parts of northern Vietnam, southern Yunnan, western Guangxi and Assam.
Dance in Thailand is the main dramatic art form in Thailand. Thai dance can be divided into two major categories, high art and low art.
Yantra tattooing or Sak Yant is a form of tattooing using Indian yantra designs. It consists of sacred geometrical, animal and deity designs accompanied by Pali phrases that are said to offer power, protection, fortune, charisma and other benefits for the bearer.
Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia dating back to the 5th century BCE. Their use began in South Asia and spread to other regions, as texts on dried and smoke-treated palm leaves of the Palmyra or talipot palm. Their use continued until the 19th century when printing presses replaced hand-written manuscripts.
A wat is a type of Buddhist and Hindu temple in Cambodia, Laos, East Shan State, Yunnan, the Southern Province of Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
The Buddhist Institute is the principal Buddhist institution of the government of Cambodia.
Steamed curry is a Southeast Asian type of curry steam-cooked in banana leaves and served with cooked rice. In Laos, it is also roasted on embers. The base of the curry is made with a curry paste with or without the addition of coconut cream or coconut milk and eggs. A wide range of leaves and staple ingredients are also added to the dish, such as:
Jinakālamālī is a Chiang Mai chronicle that covers mostly about religious history, and contains a section on early Lan Na kings to 1516/1517. Similar period Pali chronicles include the Chamadevivamsa and the Mulasasana. Originally written in Pali by a Buddhist monk, it may, be argued that the book was written in 1516." As part of the literary renaissance under the Thai king Rama I, which included the collection and restoration of texts after the fall of Ayutthaya, a copy was made in 1788 of an original Ayutthaya manuscript. The chronicle was referenced by later Burmese chronicles, most notably Maha Yazawin, the standard chronicle of Toungoo Dynasty.
The people of Laos have a rich literary tradition dating back at least six hundred years, with the oral and storytelling traditions of its peoples dating back much earlier. Lao literature refers to the written productions of Laotian peoples, its émigrés, and to Lao-language works. In Laos today there are over forty-seven recognized ethnic groups, with the Lao Loum comprising the majority group. Lao is officially recognized as the national language, but owing to the ethnic diversity of the country the literature of Laos can generally be grouped according to four ethnolinguistic families: Lao-Tai (Tai-Kadai); Mon-Khmer (Austroasiatic); Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao), and Sino-Tibetan. As an inland crossroads of Southeast Asia the political history of Laos has been complicated by frequent warfare and colonial conquests by European and regional rivals.
The Treatise on Cats, also referred to as the Cat-Book Poems, is a class of samut khoi manuscripts, believed to originate from the Ayutthaya period, though most extant specimens date to 19th-century Thailand. They contain illustrations and descriptions of various types of cats, and probably served as a breed standard.
Lai rot nam or gilded black lacquer is a technique in the traditional Thai decorative arts consisting of the application of black lacquer with gold inlay to surfaces. It was used in the decoration of wooden furniture, especially cabinets, as well as door and window panels, in palaces and Buddhist temples. The art form developed during the Ayutthaya period, reaching its zenith during the seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries, and continued during the Thonburi and Rattanakosin periods.
The Paññāsa Jātaka is a non-canonical collection of 50 stories of the Buddha's past lives, originating in mainland Southeast Asia. The stories were based on the style of the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā, but are not from the Pāli Canon itself. The stories outline the Buddha's biography and illustrate his acquisition of the perfections (pāramitā), with a strong focus on generosity (dāna).
Phra Malai Kham Luang is the royal version of a Thai legendary poem of the Sri Lankan monk Arhat Maliyadeva, whose stories are popular in Thai Theravada Buddhism. The vernacular version is known as Phra Malai Klon Suat. Phra Malai is the subject of numerous palm-leaf manuscripts, folding books, and artworks. His story, which includes concepts such as reincarnation, merit, and Buddhist cosmology, was a popular part of Thai funeral practices in the nineteenth century.
Cremation volumes are a genre of printed literature found in Thailand. They are commemorative books given as gifts to guests at Thai funerals, and usually include a biography of the deceased as well as other literary material. Their publication, which dates to the late nineteenth century, was initiated among royalty and nobility, then taken up by wealthy commoners and, later, the wider middle class. These books, whose contents range from compilations of religious texts and historical manuscripts to essays and writings on general knowledge in various fields, are regarded as a valuable historical source by Thai studies scholars, and are actively collected and traded.
The Khom script is a Brahmic script and a variant of the Khmer script used in Thailand and Laos, which is used to write Pali, Sanskrit, Khmer, Thai and Lao (Isan).
Sāstrā lbaeng or lpaen is a genre of medieval Khmer literature often made of fantastic adventure romances. They were written in verse with a rich and elaborate vocabulary and used to entertain the audience via a public reader or chanter.
Sāstrā sleuk rith or Khmer manuscripts written on palm leaves are sastra which constitute a major part of the literature of Cambodia along with the Khmer inscriptions kept since the foundation of the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia.
