POPULATION 62,354,402
BUDDHIST 90.0 percent
MUSLIM 3.0 percent
CHRISTIAN 0.5 percent
HINDU 0.1 percent
OTHER 6.4 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

Situated along the southeastern rim of continental Asia, the Kingdom of Thailand is bordered by four countries: Myanmar to the west, Laos and Cambodia to the east, and Malaysia to the south. Its southern peninsular region is flanked to the east by the Gulf of Thailand and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the Strait of Malacca. Much of Thailand is economically undeveloped. Its climate is tropical, its terrain is mountainous, and rivers have traditionally provided the most common travel routes through the country. Thailand's port cities lured traders from India, whose ships also took Buddhist missionaries to Thailand.

Theravada Buddhism, which originated about 2,000 years ago in Thailand, has some 56 million followers there. Animism, which has the second largest following, is practiced by indigenous tribal peoples as well as by tribal refugees...