Thailand Siam Muang Thai

Education.

The Buddhist monasteries throughout the coun try carry on almost the whole of the elementary education in rural districts. A provincial training college was established in 1903 for the instruction of priests and laymen in the work of teaching and by this means and with regular government super vision and control the monastic schools are being brought into line with the government educational organization. The Minister of Education is responsible for education throughout the country with the exception of such Departmental schools as the Military, Naval, Law and Police schools and a few others. There are 343 Government schools with 47,268 pupils and 1,958 teachers; 65 technical departments in Government schools with 'Jo() pupils, principally in training for teachers; 4,707 local schools run by the local authorities under departmental inspection, with 527,603 pupils and 9,872 teachers; 573 private schools with 27,435 Pupils and 1,446 teachers. Many of the special schools use the English language for conveying instruction and in three the whole curric ulum is conducted in English by English masters. In 1917 the Chulalongkorn University was , founded at Bangkok. In it are incorporated special schools of Administration, Engineering, Medicine, Literature and Science. There are also Military and Naval schools. Many of the special schools award scholarships to enable the best of their pupils to complete their studies abroad.

(E. Y.) The town of Lampun (Labong or Haribunchai), the first Lao capital in Siam, was founded about A.D. 575. The fusion of races may be said to have begun then, and the Siamese language, writ ten character and other racial peculiarities were in course of formation. But the finishing touches to the new race were supplied by the great expulsion of Lao-Tai from south-west China by Kublai Khan in A.D. Thereafter the north, the west and the south-west of Siam, comprising the kingdom of Swankalok-Suk hotai, and the states of Suphan and Nakhon Sri Tammarat (Ligore), with their sub-feudatories, were reduced by the Siamese (Thai), who, during their southern progress, moved their capital from Sukhotai to Nakhon Sawan, thence to Kampeng Pet, and thence again to Suvarnabhumi near the present Kanburi. A Suk hotai inscription of about 1284 states that the dominions of King Rama Kamheng extended across the country from the Mekong to Pechaburi, and thence down the Gulf of Siam to Ligore; and the Malay annals say that the Siamese had penetrated to the extremity of the peninsula before the first Malay colony from Menangkabu founded Singapore, i.e., about 116o.

Sano also was attacked, and its fall completed the ascendancy of the Siamese (Thai) throughout the country. The city of Ayuthia which rose in A.D. 135o upon the ruins of Sano was the capital of the first true Siamese king of all Siam. This king's sway

extended to Moulmein, Tavoy, Tenasserim and the whole Malacca peninsula. About this time Siam attacked Cambodia, seized Angkor and carried off some 90,00o prisoners. This was the begin ning of a series of wars lasting some 400 years, until Cambodia fell entirely under Siamese rule and influence. Vigorous attacks were also made during this period on the Lao states to the north-west and north-east, and Siamese supremacy was pretty firmly estab lished in Chiengmai and its dependencies by the end of the 18th century, and over the great eastern capitals, Luang Prabang and Vien-chang, about 1828.

Phra Naret.

During the 15th and 16th centuries Siam was frequently invaded by the Burmese and Peguans, who, attracted probably by the great wealth of Ayuthia, besieged it more than once without success, the defenders being aided by Portuguese mercenaries, till about 1555, when the city was taken and Siam reduced to dependence. From this condition, however, it was raised a few years later by the great conqueror and national hero Phra Naret, who after subduing Laos and Cambodia invaded Pegu, which was utterly overthrown in the next century by his successors. But after the civil wars of the 18th century the Burmese, having previously taken Chieng-mai, which appealed to Siam for help, entered Tenasserim and took Mergui and Tavoy in 1764, and then advancing simultaneously from the north and the west destroyed Ayuthia after a two years' siege (1767).

The intercourse between France and Siam began about 168o under Phra Narain, who, by the advice of his minister, the Cephalonian adventurer Constantine Phaulcon, sent an embassy to Louis XIV. An interesting episode was the active intercourse, chiefly commercial, between the Siamese and Japanese govern ments from 1592 to 1632. Japan was, in 1636, closed to foreigners; but trade was carried on at all events down to 1745 through Dutch and Chinese and occasional English traders. In 1752 an embassy came from Ceylon, desiring to renew the ancient friendship and to discuss religious matters. After the fall of Ayuthia a great general, Phaya Takh Sin, collected the remains of the army and restored the fortunes of the kingdom, establishing his capital at Bangkok; but, becoming insane, he was put to death, and was succeeded by another successful general, Phaya Chakkri, who founded the present dynasty. Under him Tenasserim was invaded and Tavoy held for the last time by the Siamese in 1792, though in 1825, taking advantage of the Burmese difficulty with England, they bombarded some of the towns on that coast. The supremacy of China is indicated by occasional missions sent, as on the found ing of a new dynasty, to Peking, to bring back a seal and a calendar.