ABSTRACT
The Tai who migrated to central mainland Southeast Asia, however, came under the influence of the Buddhist Mon and the Hindu-Buddhist Khmer and subsequently adapted their traditions to Indian-derived culture. The traditional state of premodern Siam had its roots both in organizational patterns that the Tai brought with them and in Indianized models that the Tai borrowed from the Mon and Khmer. The notion of "power over land" has been taken as indicating that the traditional sociopolitical system that existed in Siam from the fifteenth to the mid-nineteenth century was a "feudal" system. The sacredness of the monarchy in traditional Siam was manifested in the rituals the king performed. At the time that the Tai were founding their first kingdoms, a religious revolution had begun that would soon result in a fundamental change in the religious traditions of mainland Southeast Asia.
