There arose in the earlier part of the 13th Century A.D. two chiefs of the Thai-noi who wrested from the Khmers the area of Central Thailand and one of them became the first Thai king of Sukhodaya, a town some 250 kilometres as the crow-flies north-ward from Bangkok. Under the reign of its third king, Ram Kamhang the Great, a contemporary and friend of the aforesaid Thai King Mengrai of Northern Thailand, the kingdom of Sukodaya became a relatively large empire stretching southward through the length of the Malay Peninsula which was the last remnant of the once Javanese-Sumatran Empire touched that of Northern Thailand where reigned, as already mentioned King Mengrai. Eastward but in northerly direction, through what is now the North-East Area of Thailand which was at that time partly the sphere of influence of the now decaying Khmer Empire of the Lao kingdom, the Sukhodaya Empire of King Ram Kamhang reached further beyond the river Mekong. Westward it included a part of the Mon country of what is now Lower Burma. Ram Kamhang's outstanding achievements in the realm of culture which have endured to the present day are his invention of the Thai alphabet in 1283 A.D., and the adoption of buddhism of they Ceylonese Sect which has remained to this day. He also introduced the manufacture of glazed pottery by importing artisans, no doubt from Chaina.