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 3 aspects: linguistic culture, court culture, and traditional culture.
By traditional culture we mean customs concerning agriculture and human relations, and the art of making daily necessities such as utensils, clothing and basketry. When speaking about traditional Thai culture, what cannot be left unmentioned is the wat or Buddhist temple and monastery combined. After Buddhism had been spread throughout Thailand for hundreds of years, the primitive animist belief of the Thai people was assimilated by the Buddhist one. Wat became the centre of the village. It was the place where people received education, attended rites and ceremonies, and observed feasts and festivals all the year round. Nowadays, due to the rapid advancement of technology, the traditional Thai way of living, especially in the big cities, has inevitably changed. However, it is still preserved to a large extent in the faraway rural areas where modern civilization has failed to penetrate.