Thailand (formerly Siam)

THAILANDIA (formerly SIAM). — A state of southern Asia, comprising part of Indochina and of the Malay Peninsula, between Burma, the Malay Federation, and French Indochina. It covers 513,447 sq. km and has no fewer than 18.5 million inhabitants (a density of 36 per sq. km), of whom only 4.3% are foreigners, the majority Chinese.
I. GEOGRAPHY. – It is a country of rather varied structure and appearance, with a long, narrow strip of mountains in the S., and plateaus and mountains in the N. surrounding the broad alluvial plain traversed by the Menam, which constitutes its most economically developed and most populous region. Rice is the basic crop, and its substantial production (97% of the agricultural land) is partly destined for export. Tobacco, cotton, sugar cane, sesame, pepper, etc., also yield respectable products. The forests covering the mountain slopes contain the valuable teak, which is likewise widely exported, together with tin, extracted from peninsular T. (tungsten is declining; lead, molybdenum, and diamonds are produced in respectable quantities). The livestock wealth is considerable, but for religious reasons it is limited to draft animals.

The capital Bangkok (or Krunghtep, or “city of the Angels”), on the left bank of the Menam, is a large urban agglomeration which exceeds one million inhabitants with its suburbs; all the other inhabited centers are much smaller.

T. is a constitutional monarchy, with a two-chamber parliament, one chamber elective and the other appointed by the Crown.

Giuseppe Caraci
II. HISTORY. — The valley of the Menam, the heart of T., was originally inhabited by the Austro-Asiatic people of the Mon, who very early came under the civilizing influence of India. Politically, from the 1st to the 6th century, the region remained under the suzerainty of the Kingdom of Fu-nan in the Mekong Valley. The Mon kingdom of Dvāravati subsequently arose on the ruins of this foreign dominion. During the 9th and 10th centuries, the Khmer became the dominant population, and in the first half of the 11th century the country became a province of the Khmer Empire of Camboge. The Mongol conquests in China in the 13th century helped to accelerate the slow

infiltration southward of the T’ai people from their homes in the mountains of Yunnan; the descent to the sea became an avalanche which, at the end of the 13th century, swept away the Mon dynasty from the upper Menam and the Khmer administration from the lower Menam, and with them Hindu civilization. The T’ai of the middle Menam, organized in the kingdom of Sukhot’ai (c. 1220–1378), gave Siam its name (Muang T’ai, T., since 1948 definitively the official name) and its present-day boundaries; they adopted Hinayāna Buddhism with its canon in the pāli language, introduced from Ceylon, and the new religion left its mark on the entire life of the nation. The dynasty of Sukhot’ai was soon supplanted by the kings of Ayuth’ya on the lower Menam (1347–1767), while the upper

The Menam constituted the T’ai State of Xieng Mai, which in 1556 fell prey to the Burmese. The annals of Ayuth'ya are filled with the centuries-long struggle against the ancient rulers, the Khmer of Camboge, whom the Siamese gradually reduced to a very small state and who were saved only by the French protectorate (1867).

In the 16th–18th centuries the great enemy was Burma, against which T. sometimes waged war with serious disasters. Mercenaries and foreign adventurers played a major part in these wars (the Portuguese at the beginning of the 16th century, the Japanese at the beginning of the 17th). After 1680 the government effectively passed into the hands of a Greek from Cephalonia, Costantino Ierakis, known as Phaulkon, with whose help French influence became supreme; it nevertheless ended with the fall and death of Phaulkon in 1688. The 18th century was an age of decline, culminating in the Burmese invasion of 1767; Ayuth'ya was captured and burned, and the Kingdom came under the Burmese yoke. But in the following months the national resurgence, led by the Chinese-born general P'ya Taksin, achieved complete success; and in 1769 T. was reunited under his sceptre. P'ya Taksin established the capital at Bangkok and in 1775 incorporated into his Kingdom the region of Xieng Mai (the upper basin of the Menam). His capricious cruelty, however, alienated the people; and in 1782 he was overthrown by the general P'ya Chakri, founder of the Rama dynasty, which still reigns. During the 19th century T. found itself exposed to political pressure from Great Britain in the south and west, and from France in the east, but succeeded in preserving its independence precisely thanks to the balance achieved there between the two European influences. The treaties of 1907 and 1909 definitively regulated the borders with the powerful neighbours, though not without serious sacrifices for Siam.

At that time King Chulalongkorn (1868–1910) reigned, and he led the country’s first steps along the path of modernization. Under Vajiravudh (1910–25), T. nominally took part in the First World War as an ally of the Entente. Prajadhipok (1925–35) was the last absolute king of T.; in 1932 a bloodless military coup forced him to grant a constitution. Three years later, having fallen out with his ministry, he was forced to abdicate; his successor Ananda (1935–46) was a minor and resided in Switzerland during almost his entire reign. In 1938 Colonel (later Marshal) Luang Pibul Songgram came to power, and his government soon assumed a dictatorial character. In December 1940 and January 1941 T. fought a brief war with France to reclaim the positions lost in Indochina in the preceding century; and in December 1941 it joined the Japanese invasion of Burma. Nevertheless, the country was spared active military operations; it was therefore

easy, after the collapse of Japan and Songgram’s resignation in 1945, to conclude a peace treaty with the Allies that restored the borders of 1940. King Ananda was assassinated shortly after his return to his homeland (1946); he was succeeded by his brother Phumiphon. The political situation in the post-war period remained unstable. A new Constitution was promulgated in 1947, and in 1948 Marshal Songgram returned to the government, though no longer as a dictator. On 29 November 1951 a coup by the armed forces abolished the Constitution of 1947 and restored that of 1932, while keeping Songgram in power. In recent years T. demonstrated its solidarity with the Western world by sending troops to Korea and taking measures against the Communists, who were especially numerous in the Chinese colony.

Luciano Petech

III. EVANGELIZATION OF T

The first missionaries of whom there is any record are the two Dominicans, Jeronimo da Cruz and Sebastião

da Canto, who, invited by Portuguese merchants, arrived at Ayuthia in 1567 (not, as previously stated, in 1554 or 1555). Jeronimo was killed that same year; Sebastião, too, met his death with two other Dominicans in 1569 during the war between Burma and T. At the end of the century there were Dominicans, Franciscans, and secular priests, and at the beginning of the 17th century also Jesuits. Missionary activity was very often interrupted by the continual wars between T. and Burma and between T. and Cambodia. It was carried out not so much among the Siamese, who to this day have remained zealous followers of Buddha, as among the Portuguese, who became numerous after the Dutch capture of Malacca in 1641, and the Cochinchinese, who had taken refuge in Ayuthia during the persecution in Cochinchina. In 1662 there were approximately 2,000 Catholics in Ayuthia with 11 priests: 4 Jesuits, 2 Dominicans, 2 Franciscans, and 3 secular priests, all under the Portuguese patronage.

In 1662 Mgr. Lambert de la Motte (v.) arrived in Ayuthia, appointed by Propaganda apostolic vicar of the recently erected vicariate of Cochinchina, with 2 priests from the Seminary of Paris, and settled in Ayuthia because he was unable to enter his vicariate on account of the persecution. Only in 1668 did he obtain jurisdiction also over T.; this, however, was not recognized by the Portuguese priests and gave rise to unpleasant disputes. Following the good relations with France maintained by King Phra-Narai and his minister Phaulkon, and the Treaty of 10 December 1685, which granted missionaries freedom to preach in T., the future of the mission seemed assured; but in 1688 a revolution destroyed everything and the missionaries were imprisoned. It is true that this first persecution ended in 1691, but in the course of the 18th century periods of calm alternated with ferocious persecutions, especially in 1730 and 1779 (the expulsion of the missionaries), to which were added the destruction caused by the Burmese-Siamese wars, so that the mission steadily deteriorated. Under Mgr. Arnaud-Antoine Garnault (1786-1811), who established his see on the island of Pinang (under English rule from 1786), missionary work in T. was gradually able to resume and also to develop under his successors, especially after the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 15 August 1856, which granted freedom to erect churches, seminaries, schools, and hospices throughout the Kingdom of T. From 1881 the mission was able to extend into Siamese Laos. In 1925 the Salesians took over missionary work in Siamese Malacca. In the educational field, the Brothers of St. Gabriel (since 1901), the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres (since 1898), and the Ursulines (since 1924) are active. In 1944 an apostolic vicariate for the indigenous clergy was erected at Chantaburi.

T. is today divided into six ecclesiastical jurisdictions: BANGKOK, in 1673 erected as the apostolic vicariate of Siam, since 1924 bearing its present name, entrusted to the Seminary of the Foreign Missions of Paris; CHANTABURI, erected as an apostolic vicariate in 1944 and entrusted to the secular clergy; RAJABURI, erected as a mission sui iuris in 1930, an apostolic prefecture in 1934, and an apostolic vicariate in 1941, entrusted to the Salesians; THARÉ, erected as the apostolic vicariate of Laos in 1899, bearing its present name since 1950, entrusted to the Seminary of Paris; UBON, erected as an apostolic vicariate in 1953 and entrusted to the Seminary of Paris; UDONTHANI, erected as an apostolic prefecture in 1953 and entrusted to the Redemptorists.

However, the same Constitution openly affirms religious freedom together with the various other individual freedoms: « Everyone has full freedom to profess any religion, to belong to any sect or religious creed, and to practise the form of worship corresponding to his beliefs, provided that such form is not contrary to civic duties, public order, or good morals » (chap. II, sect. 25). « In the exercise of the freedom mentioned in the preceding paragraph, every person shall be protected against any act of discrimination that the State might commit (an act that would be contrary to the rights of the person himself or harmful to his legitimate well-being), solely because the person professes a religion, belongs to a sect or religious doctrine, or practises a form of worship different from that of others » (loc. cit., para. 2). « Within the limits established by law, every person has full freedom of property, speech, writing, the press, education, public assembly, association, and the formation of political parties » (chap. II, sect. 26).

A special royal decree, issued on 27 Aug. 1909, regulates the situation of the Catholic Church in Siam, recognizing the juridical personality of the missions and establishing the regime governing their properties. The Catholic Church in Siam, whatever the nationality of its missions and priests, receives, in accordance with Siamese law, for each of its apostolic vicariates, the civil personality required to own land, under the conditions laid down in the present decree (art. 1). An apostolic vicariate is, in the course of this decree, also called a bishopric or mission.

The apostolic vicar established by the Holy See as head of the mission and, in his absence, the Superior of the mission, is the legal representative of the bishopric or mission, considered as a separate juridical person. In each station, the missionary in charge acts as the representative of the mission under the supreme authority of the bishop (art. 2). No Catholic missionary, even if he has long been a member of the mission, may in future acquire landed property in his own name (art. 3). Landed properties belonging to the missions shall be governed by Siamese law and shall fall under the jurisdiction of the Siamese courts (art. 4).

In future, a mission may possess landed property only directly, as provided by the present decree. It may neither possess it indirectly nor claim a right of ownership or interest in landed property except in its own name or in the name of a station, branch, or specified religious establishment (art. 5). Landed properties belonging to a mission are divided into two classes according to their purpose: the first comprises the lands of churches and other sacred buildings; the second, income-producing lands (art. 6). In conformity with art. 3 of the Treaty concluded on 15 Aug. 1856 between Siam and France, missionaries have the freedom to preach and teach, to build churches, seminaries or schools, hospitals, or other sacred buildings anywhere in the Kingdom of Siam, always in accordance with the laws of the country (art. 7). The mission has the freedom to acquire land anywhere for the establishment of a new station or branch

(Int. Fides)
THAILANDIA - Giant statue placed at the entrance to Wat Arun Bangkok.

for the extent actually necessary for the purpose (art. 10). - Vedi tav. I.