Initial states of Thailand

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History of Thailand
Timeline Prehistory Spirit Cave 9000 BCE–5500 BCE Ban Chiang 2,100 BCE–200 CE Initial states Suvarnabhumi Legendary Singhanavati 691 BCE–638 CE Raktamaritika 200 BCE–700 CE Tun Sun 52 CE–600 CE Tambralinga 100 CE–1277 CE Langkasuka 100 CE–1500 CE Pan Pan 300 CE–700 CE Lavo 468 CE–1388 CE Dvaravati 500 CE–1200 CE Wen Dan 600 CE–800 CE Haripuñjaya 629 CE–1292 CE Ngoenyang 638 CE–1292 CE Srivijaya 671 CE–1025 CE Canasapura 790 CE–974 CE Regional kingdoms Lan Na 1292–1775 Phayao 1094–1338 Nakhon Si Thammarat 1278–1782 Singora 1605–1680 Pattani 1457–1902 Satun 1808–1916 Reman 1810–1902 Main history Sukhothai Kingdom 1238–1438 Ayutthaya Kingdom 1351–1767 Thonburi Kingdom 1767–1782 Rattanakosin Kingdom 1782–present 1782–1932 1932–1973 1973–2001 2001–present
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Before the Tai people's southward migration from Guangxi since the 4th century, the Indochinese peninsula had already been populated by Austronesians who by around 30,000 BP had spread into all sub-regions. They left traces of the first local culture - the Hoabinhian, a name assigned to an industry and cultural continuity of stone tools and flaked cobble artifacts that appears around 10,000 BP in caves and rock shelters first described in Hòa Bình, Vietnam, later also documented in Terengganu, Malaysia, Sumatra, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Yunnan, southern China.^[1][2]

Austroasiatic Mon and Khmer groups, who originate in North-Eastern India predominantly populated the riverine lowlands of Indochina since around 5000 years BP. Austronesian immigrants arrived at the coast of central modern Vietnam around 2500 BP.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

The controversial Two layer hypothesis suggests the immigration of settlers arriving from the Yangtze River valley around 3,000 BP, who introduced wet-rice and millet farming techniques in Mainland Southeast Asia.^[9] The site of Ban Chiang in North-eastern Thailand currently ranks as the earliest known center of copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia and has been dated to around 2,000 years BCE.^[10]

The oldest known records of a political entity in Indochina are attributed to Funan - centered in the Mekong Delta and comprising territories inside modern day Thailand.^[11] Chinese annals confirm Funan's existence as early as the 1st century CE, but archaeological documentation implies an extensive human settlement history since the 4th century BCE.^[12] The Langkasuka and Tambralinga kingdoms on the Malay peninsula appear in Chinese texts by the fifth century. As well as Funan these polities are characterized as fully developed Indianized kingdoms^{[broken anchor]}, which after centuries of trade and socio-economic interaction with India had adopted and incorporated elements of Indian culture, religion, statecraft, administration, epigraphy, literature and architecture.^[13][14]

The Mon Dvaravati principalities also appear during the middle of the first millennium in the lower Chao Phraya River valley of modern-day central Thailand.^[15] Unlike Funan, Langkasuka and Tambralinga that were situated in the center of the international trade network Dvaravati remained relatively isolated. Although distinct, the sophisticated Mon-Dvaravati culture is based on Hindu cosmology. Its characteristic art style "such as the faceted miter sitting high on the forehead ... the facial features, especially the eyes″ has influenced Thai sculpture to this day.^[16]