Thai culture is known as a blended one. As long as some 2000 years ago, when the Thais and the Chinese were neighbours, the Thais began to absorb the influence of Chinese culture as is evidenced by the similarity of a large number of words in the two languages, especially the cardinal numbers from one to ninety-nine and the strong feelings for family ties that the two people shared. Centuries later as the Thais gradually moved southwards to the area that is now Thailand, Indian culture together with Buddhism and Brahmanism began to spread all over this country. This formed another basic foundation of Thai culture.