Kings of Siam
Kings of Siam and Thailand
The only country in Southeast Asia to remain independent during the colonial period, and until 1939 officially known as "Siam" (now Muang Tai, "Land of the Free," or Pratet Tai, "Free Kingdom"), Thailand has been strongly influenced by both China and India but is fundamentally a sub-Indian civilization, based on Buddhism and using a version of the Devanagari (Sanskrit) alphabet, adapted from Cambodian. A Buddhist historical Era is still used in Thailand.
In fighting with Vietnam for influence over Cambodia and Laos the Vietnamese were not even regarded as properly Buddhist, because of the more Confucian basis of Vietnamese government. Nevertheless, Siam was more closely in contact with China than with India, has long been the home of a large Chinese community, and in 1575 even requested a new royal seal from China, to replace the one lost to the Burmese in 1569. So we really have a phenomenon of Indian and Chinese cultural spheres overlapping. It is noteworthy that both Laos and Cambodia were vassals of the original Bangkok
kingdom but were lost to the French colonial empire in Vietnam.
THE BUDDHIST HISTORICAL ERA
2000 AD + 543 = 2543 Annô Buddhismi
543 BC