Thailand is a fascinating country with a very rich culture and history. Today, it is home to over 60 million people, and is a newly industrialized nation with an emerging world economy. Thailand is the world's leading exporter of rice, with roughly half of its arable land dedicated to rice fields. As home to one of the earliest iron and bronze cultures, Thailand can be regarded as a "cradle of civilization."

This book is divided into 11 chapters that follow an introduction that explains the text's scope, organization and methodology. A chronology of historical events, biographical entries on key figures, a bibliography, a glossary of terms, and selected maps provide an enlightening, complete view of Thailand's culture and world significance.

Patit Paban Mishra obtained his MA History from Delhi University (1972) and M.Phil (1974) as well as PhD (1979) from JNU, New Delhi. In 1998 Professor Mishra was awarded the D.Litt degree from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. Mishra began his teaching career from 1979. He took up assignment as a visiting Professor at Northern University of Malaysia (UUM) in September 2011. Mishra has supervised 60 M.Phil, 8 Ph.D and 2 D. Litt scholars during his tenure at Sambalpur University. An avid writer, he has written about 950 articles in more than 65 Encyclopedias, all published by the reputed publishers from the USA. Mishra is Editor of Encyclopedia of the Middle East and South Asia (ME Sharpe, the USA),Organized Crime: An International Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, the USA) and Native Peoples of the World: South Asia and Middle East Tribes (ME Sharpe, the USA). His book on Thailand was recently published by the Greenwood Publications of the USA. Mishra also has co-authored a book entitled, Rapprochement between east coast of India and Southeast Asia: A discourse on cultural contact (Saarbrucken, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2011) . He is author of over 30 research articles in national and 15 in international ones. In 2004, he was the President of Indian History Congress (Sect. IV). He was also President of Orissa History Congress in 2011. Mishra has an outstanding scholarly reputation as an Encyclopedia editor, Chairperson/participant of twenty six International Conferences, Visiting Professor/Fellow and author or co-author of 8 books and numerous monographs. He is in the Executive Committee of national ad international bodies such as; Indian History Congress, ASRC, Hyderabad, Association of Indian Archives. IAPPS, IHRC, Orissa History Congress, IDSA and International Professors Project (USA).