In Betong specifically about half of the nearly 50,000 residents are Thai Muslim from Malaysia while the other half are Thai Buddhists and Chinese Buddhists who practice a mixture of Theravada Thai Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism. The political ideology of communism once ruled supreme in the forested mountains and jungles surrounding Betong, although now only small groups of people on the the outskirts of the town live in secluded communist societies.