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Thailand Regions
Landforms and drainage divide the country more or less into
four natural regions--the North, the Northeast, the Center, and
the South. Although Bangkok geographically is part of the central
plain, as the capital and largest city this metropolitan area may
be considered in other respects a separate region. Each of the
four geographical regions differs from the others in population,
basic resources, natural features, and level of social and
economic development. The diversity of the regions is in fact the
most pronounced attribute of Thailand's physical setting.
During the winter months, in the mountainous North the
temperature is cool enough for the cultivation of fruits such as
lychees and strawberries. These high mountains are incised by
steep river valleys and upland areas that border the central
plain. A series of rivers, including the Nan, Ping, Wang, and
Yom, unite in the lowlands to form the Chao Phraya watershed.
Traditionally, these natural features made possible several
different types of agriculture, including wet-rice farming in the
valleys and
shifting cultivation (see Glossary) in the uplands.
The forested mountains also promoted a spirit of regional
independence. Forests, including stands of teak and other
economically useful hardwoods that once dominated the North and
parts of the Northeast, had diminished by the 1980s to 13 million
hectares. In 1961 they covered 56 percent of the country, but by
the mid-1980s forestland had been reduced to less than 30 percent
of Thailand's total area.
The Northeast, with its poor soils, is not favored
agriculturally. The region consists mainly of the dry Khorat
Plateau and a few low hills. The short monsoon season brings
heavy flooding in the river valleys. Unlike the more fertile
areas of Thailand, the Northeast has a long dry season, and much
of the land is covered by sparse grasses. Mountains ring the
plateau on the west and the south, and the Mekong delineates much
of the eastern rim.
The "heartland" of the Central Thai, the Center is a natural
self-contained basin often termed "the rice bowl of Asia." The
complex irrigation system developed for wet-rice agriculture in
this region provided the necessary economic support to sustain
the development of the Thai state from the thirteenth-century
kingdom of Sukhothai to contemporary Bangkok. Here the rather
flat unchanging landscape facilitated inland water and road
transport. The fertile area was able to sustain a dense
population, 422 persons per square kilometer in 1987, compared
with an average of 98 for the country as a whole. The terrain of
the region is dominated by the Chao Phraya and its tributaries
and by the cultivated paddy fields. Metropolitan Bangkok, the
focal point of trade, transport, and industrial activity, is
situated on the southern edge of the region at the head of the
Gulf of Thailand and includes part of the delta of the Chao
Phraya system.
The South, a narrow peninsula, is distinctive in climate,
terrain, and resources. Its economy is based on rice cultivation
for subsistence and rubber production for industry. Other sources
of income include coconut plantations, tin mining, and tourism,
which is particularly lucrative on Phuket Island. Rolling and
mountainous terrain and the absence of large rivers are
conspicuous features of the South. North-south mountain barriers
and impenetrable tropical forest caused the early isolation and
separate political development of this region. International
access through the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand made the
South a crossroads for both Theravada Buddhism, centered at
Nakhon Si Thammarat, and Islam, especially in the former
sultanate of Pattani on the border with Malaysia.
Thailand's regions are further divided into a total of
seventy-three provinces
(see
fig. 8). The country's provinces
have the same names as their respective capitals.
Data as of September 1987
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