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"Krungthep" = Bangkok |
Language
Thai is the primary language. Thai, like Chinese and Vietnamese, is a tonal language meaning that the same word can have a completely different meaning depending on how it is pronounced. In total, there are 5 tones: Mid tone, high tone, low tone, rising tone and falling tone. A common example of the difficulty of tones in Thai is the word "mai," whose meanings include "wood", "not", "silk", "burn", and "new" depending on what tone is used to pronounce it.
English (the secondary language of the elite) is taught in most schools and colleges and is used in commerce and government.
Geography
Thailand, measures 1,100 by 500 miles roughly twice the size of Wyoming. The north and west are mountainous; the northeast is a huge barren plain; the central region is fertile and exceedingly densely populated, and in the south there are narrow costal plains and high mountains. The country is almost 75% rural.
Climate
Thailand has a moist, tropical climate, influenced by monsoon winds. The hot season (February to May) sees temperatures reach 104°F (40°C). During the wet season (June to November) temperatures reach 78-98°F (26–37°C), with cooler temperatures of 56-92°F (13–33°C) from December to February. Sweating is a normal part of life.
History
Thailand is unique in Southeast Asia in that it has never been a dependency of another nation. The word Thai means free. By the 6th century AD thriving agricultural communities were established from the north to Southern Thailand. Theravada Buddhism was flourishing, and probably entered the region around the 2nd or 3rd centuries BC.
Thailand emerged as a kingdom in the 13th century and over the next four centuries enlarged its borders through conquest. Although there were frequent battles with Burma and the Khmers, but the Thais were able to maintain control of their country and began to further unite the provinces in the north and south of the country.
During the 1800s British influence grew with trade, the country began to modernize, and Thailand kept its independence by ceding land to the colonial powers (Cambodia and Laos to the French; part of Malaysia to the British).
In 1782 King Rama I was crowned. He established the capital to Bangkok and ruled as the first king of the Chakri dynasty. Since then the government has changed hands many times, with military coups, political and social unrest and uneasy coalitions. The present King Rama IX, his Majesty King Bhumipol Adujdej, ascended to the throne in 1946, and he commands great respect in both Thailand and throughout the rest of the world.
Christianity in Thailand
The first missionaries came to Bangkok in 1828, but it was 12 years before the first sustained missionary presence was established. After 19 more years, they baptized their first convert. Official antagonism, persecution, and the short lifespan of missionaries hampered the growth of the church. The churches in the north remain the strongest in Thailand, with 75% of the country's Christians being from this area.
The Thai church is slowly growing, but remains tiny. It is now beginning to send some missionaries as well as receiving them. In 1900 Christians were 0.6% of the population; in 1985 this had only risen to 0.9% but in 2000 this reached 1.6%.
Missionaries have considerable freedom for ministry despite a quota system which somewhat restricts the number of missionaries who may live in Thailand. Major involvement in the past was institutional; medical work and schools playing an important role in winning the first converts and planting the first churches in many parts of the land. The major emphasis is now on urban and rural evangelism, church planting and Bible teaching.
How to Pray
- Thailand religious culture is a complex web of spirit appeasement, occult practices and Buddhism, with a strong social bondage.
- Bangkok has over 230 Protestant churchesmost of them very small...yet even if these all were healthy churches it would not be enough to reach the 11.4 million people in Bangkok, less than 1/3 of 1% (0.3%) are Evangelical Christian.
- The burgeoning economy and urbanization is changing society. People are moving to the cities, and some say that materialism is the new god of Bangkok.
- Thailand is a Buddhist country but there is freedom to belong to other religions.
- The growth of the church has been disappointing. Much of the growth has been among the Thai–speaking Chinese in the cities and the marginalized tribal peoples.
- Over 2 million derive their income from the sex ‘industry’. AIDS has become a major scourge. Some estimate that 40–80% of prostitutes end up with the disease.
- Nearly 2 million HIV infected people and rising fast, despite vigorous action by the government.
- Leadership training is vital. There are fine evangelical leaders, but there are few who are adequately trained and spiritually mature.
- Of the 76 provinces, 14 have fewer than 1,000 Christians, three have less than 100, and four have no evangelical congregations.
- Out of 1.8 million university students in Thailand, 1.3 million of them study in Bangkok. They remain largely unevangelized.
- Nearly all of the 2.5 million Muslims in Thailand live in the southernmost regions. Islam is growing at a rate of 2.1% per year.
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