CULTURE :
Thailand is located at the meeting point of the two great cultural systems of Asia - Chinese and Indian. In everyday life, Chinese culture has mixed very well with the Thai, whereas in Thai court culture, which has been based mainly on Buddhism and Brahmanism, India
has exerted a strong influence.
Thai culture can be divided into
three aspects: linguistic culture,
court culture and traditional culture.
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The Thai language, or Phasaa Thai, basically consists of monosyllable words, whose meanings are complete by themselves. This alphabet was created by King Ramkhamhaeng the Great in 1283 by modeling it on the ancient Indian alphabets of Sanskrit and Pali trough the medium of the old Khmer characters. After a history of over 700 years, the Thai alphabet today comprises 44 letters (including 2 obsolete ones), representing 20 consonant phonemes, and 15 vowel signs, denoting 22 vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs. As Thai is a tonal language with five different tones, it often confuses foreigners who are unused to this kind of language. Like most languages of the world, the Thai language is a complicated mixture of several sources. Many Thai words used today were derived from Pali, Sanskrit, Khmer, Malay, English and Chinese. 
Court culture refers to the conception of beauty perfection and harmony in the fine arts, including painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, drama and music. In the old days most of these originated in or received the patronage of the royal court and nobility. Most of the works served the Buddhist religion. Their styles were influenced by the Indians through the Mons and Khmers, and then were blended and developed in unique forms recognized as Thai. 
Classical Thai painting is mostly confined to mural paintings inside Buddhist temples and palaces They are idealistic and the themes frequently depicted are those related to Buddhism, such as the Buddha's life stories, stories of the tree worlds (heaven, earth and hell), and also those concerning customs and traditions. The subjects of the paintings reflect different purposes: to beautify and dignify the places of worship, to promote Buddhism, and to educate people trough pictures.