Terrain
Situated in the heart of the Southeast Asian mainland, Thailand covers an area of 513,115 square kilometers. It is bordered by Laos to the northeast, Myanmar to the north and west, Cambodia to the east, and Malaysia to the south.
Thailand is naturally divided into four topographic regions: 1) the North, 2) the Central Plain, or Chao Phraya River basin, 3) the Northeast, or the Korat Plateau, and 4) the South, or Southern Isthmus.
The North is a mountainous region characterized by natural forests, ridges, and deep, narrow, alluvial valleys. The Northern area is a mountainous region and its pre-dominant people are Thai, usually called Thai Nuea or Northern Thai. The Thai live in the lowland of the valleys while on the uplands live a number of primitive tribes belonging mostly to the two linguistic families the Mon-Khmer and the Thibeto-Burmans.
Central Thailand, the basin of the Chao Phraya River, is a lush, fertile valley. It is the richest and most extensive rice-producing area in the country and has often been called the “Rice Bowl of Asia.” Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, is located in this region. The Central area consists of one vast lowland plain watered by the Menam, or, to call it by the real name, the river Chao Phya, and other river systems. Here live the Thai or Siamese. There are in this area small c ommunities of Mons and Cam-bodians of the Mon-Kkmer family, Annamites, Malays and Burmans mostly Tavoyans, a tribe akin to the Aracanese of Burma.
The Northeastern region, or Korat Plateau, is an arid region characterized by a rolling surface and undulating hills. Harsh climatic conditions often result in this region being subjected to floods and droughts. The North- Eastern area is a vast plateau tilted towards south-east and drained by the river Mekhong which forms the eastern boundary between Thailand and French Indo-china. The people in this legion are also predo minantly Thai usually called the Lao. Across the river Mekhong on the left bank also live the Laos of Lao State. Living in isolated groups are the Phutai, another tribe of Thai stock whose former home was in French Indo-China, and a number of minoritie s mostly of the Mon-Khmer family.
The Southern region is hilly to mountainous, with thick virgin forests and rich deposits of minerals and ores. This region is the center for the production of rubber and the cultivation of other tropical crops. In the Southern area, throughout the Malay Peninsula, are the Thai, but in the southernmost parts the people are mostly of Malayan blood.
The fertile and well watered plains of Thailand have blessed the people with more than enough rice, maize, and other crops, establishing Thailand as the "rice-bowl" of Southeast Asia. The country has approximately 51 million hectares of land, which can be broken down into 17,17,10, and 7 million hectares for the north, the northeast, the central part, and the south, respectively. About 21.8 million hectares are reserved as the national reserved forests. The cultivated area represented about 20.8 million hectares, of which 11.9 million hectares are used for growing rice, 6.7 million hectares for upland crops, and 2.2 million hectares for perennial crops.
