in some measure to the fact that Siam is still an independent
kingdom ruled by a monarch who is also head of the Church. But whereas
for the last few centuries this kingdom may be regarded as a political
and religious unit, its condition in earlier times was different and
Siamese history tells us nothing of the introduction and first
diffusion of Indian religions in the countries between India and
China.

The people commonly known as Siamese call themselves Thai which
(in the form Tai) appears to be the racial name of several tribes who
can be traced to the southern provinces of China. They spread thence,
in fanlike fashion, from Laos to Assam, and the middle section
ultimately descended the Menam to the sea. The Siamese claim to have
assumed the name Thai (free) after they threw off the yoke of the
Cambojans, but this derivation is more acceptable to politics than to
ethnology. The territories which they inhabited were known as Siem,
Syam or Syama, which is commonly identified with the Sanskrit
Syama, dark or brown.[189] But the names Shan and A-hom seem to be
variants of the same word and Syama is possibly not its origin but
a learned and artificial distortion.[190] The Lao were another
division of the same race who occupied the country now called Laos
before the Tai had moved into Siam. This movement was gradual and
until the beginning of the twelfth century they merely established
small principalities, the principal of which was Lamphun,[191] on the
western arm of the Mekong. They gradually penetrated into the kingdoms
of Svankalok, Sukhothai[192] and Lavo (Lophburi) which then were
vassals of Camboja, and they were reinforced by another body of Tais
which moved southwards early in the twelfth century. For some time the
Cambojan Empire made a successful effort to control these immigrants
but in the latter part of the thirteenth century the Siamese
definitely shook off its yoke and founded an independent state with
its capital at Sukhothai. There was probably some connection between
these events and the southern expeditions of Khubilai Khan who in 1254
conquered Talifu and set the Tai tribes in motion.

The history of their rule in Siam may be briefly described as a
succession of three kingdoms with capitals at Sukhothai, Ayuthia and
Bangkok respectively. Like the Burmese, the Siamese have annals or
chronicles. They fall into two divisions, the chronicles[193] of the
northern kingdom in three volumes which go down