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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   30030 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023

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Weren't they once conquered by some of the more entrepreneurial South Indian kings? (🇮🇳 Jai Hind!)

Are you talking about the Chola campaigns in Southeast Asia? I don’t think the Cholas touched Thailand then; they even had the Khmer, who controlled the relevant parts of modern-day Thailand at the time, as allies.

I don’t think Thailand was ever conquered by an Indian kingdom. Indianized kingdoms, yeah (that describes much of Southeast Asia), but not Indian ones.

Firstly, I was taken aback by how fair Thai people tend to be. I thought they'd be swarthier, akin to Malaysians or Indonesians, but quite a large fraction could easily pass as Caucasian if not for their facial features. The ones who are really tanned seem to be people who work out under the sun, having skin tones I expect.

This shouldn’t be too surprising, given that the Tai people were driven from southern China by the Chinese only a thousand and some years ago.

Given the genetic evidence I think it's certainly possible that most of mainland Southeast Asia was ruled by South Indian kings who brought in an appreciable number of settlers in the hazy period before recorded history proper began in that part of the world, but I agree that it wasn't the Medieval Chola state that did that.

Given the well-known history of Indianization of SEA states in the early first millennium and long-standing contact between SEA and the subcontinent, I think the genetic evidence is less likely due to a conquest than just results of the above.

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