Notions of Thainess, the ideal of being Thai, are taught from an early age and are usually summarised as the upholding of the three pillars that support Thailand: Nation, Religion, and King. These abstract concepts are reinforced in several ways that appeal to non-Thai tourists, including festivals, customs, and historical sites. It is the last of these that provide the most concrete examples (or perhaps more accurately laterite examples).

Historical sites in modern day Thailand have been used to promote an unbroken lineage of Thainess, usually from Sukhothai to Ayutthaya to Bangkok, which is a somewhat oversimplified history. In reality these kingdoms existed in overlapping time periods, expanding and contracting, with alliances changing depending on who was fighting / trading with whom. There were also cultural exchanges with parts of what is now Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, and Laos. The culture of the southern states (modern day Malaysia) has not been incorporated much outside of the southern provinces, but that was mainly an accident of geography. Thainess certainly exists, but it is a modern construct rather than an historical one as presented by organisations such as the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

But the notion of a unified Thai state stretching back hundreds of years has been promoted so successfully that it is worthy of more attention, not least because it exists alongside promotion of localism in arts and culture which potentially undermines this (Khmer temples stretching across the central plains, styles of Buddha statues named after the kingdoms in which the style was popular etc).

This paper explores how historical sites in modern-day Thailand have been presented in English language guidebooks, and the extent to which these books emphasise the importance of Thainess to these sites, and these sites to Thainess. A sample of approximately 25 books will be used, ranging in date of publication from the late 1800s to present day. A convenience sampling method will be used, namely books included will be taken from those collected by the author over several years, and full inclusion and exclusion criteria will be defined before commencing data collection and analysis.

Textual analysis and thematic coding of the relevant text will be iterative, and further contextual information will be added where necessary. This could include a chronology of undisputed events such as the Thai government policies called ‘cultural mandates’ introduced with the specific aim of promoting Thainess, alongside contested histories, and alternative translations of Thai words.

Where ceremonies or festivals associated with Thainess take place at an historical site, for example Sukhothai’s Loy Krathong festival or Ayutthaya’s light and sound festival, these will also be included.

The aim is not to try to (re-)define Thainess, but to explore how modern Thainess is perceived, and its historicity claimed.