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INTRODUCTION
The present paper aims to present factual information regarding various aspects of the family in Thailand. The paper covers the following three aspects; religious and/or ideological characteristics and orientations of the country; the family and demography in contemporary Thailand; and the interrelationship between religion and the family. In doing so, this paper reviews and draws upon existing knowledge of the Thai family as documented in a number of research studies carried out in previous years.
General Knowledge about Thailand
Before going into a detailed description of various aspects of the Thai society and family outlined above, it is necessary to provide readers with some general knowledge about Thailand. This includes country's setting, its people, ethnics, cultural and socio-economic conditions. All of these basic characteristics, in many ways, are closely related to the ideological characteristics and orientations of the country. In addition, they have some bearing on the differentials in the family structure and family life of the Thais who reside in various regions of the country.
The country's setting and its people. Thailand (literally translated as land of the free), or Siam, the customary designation before 1939, is centrally located on the mainland of Southeast Asia. Historically, the Thais have had a long history of political independence, since the country has remained the only nation in the region that has never been colonized by European superpower Geographically, the country is subdivided into four regions, namely, Central, Northern, Northeastern, and Southern. Each of these four regions are quite different in s of physical conditions, cultural and socioeconomic structures. The largest region in terms of land area is the North, with a population of approximately 10.6 million. The second largest region is the Northeast, whose population the lowest standard of living due to the most unfavorable physical conditions in terms of land area, soil, and water supply. This region contains approximately 19.0 million people. The smallest geographic region, which is the least populous (the population is approximately 7 million) but relatively prosperous economically, is the South. The Central region covers about one-fifth of the country's total area, and contains about 12.1 million people. This region contains the Central Plain, described as the rice bowl of Southeast Asia, where the great 'Chao Phraya" River flows to the...