THAILAND, LAOS, CAMBODIA AND VIETNAM.

Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, are a group of countries that have boundaries with each other and lie between India and China. In all but Vietnam, Theravada Buddhism is the predominant religion. Apart from these resemblances, the pattern of cultures and of political trends is variegated and complex. Thailand, however, is relatively homogeneous in culture and tranquil in politics. Yet in spite of its notorious charm, it has not attracted many field investigators. The major exception to this is the work of the Cornell University Thailand Project, and especially its study from 1948 to 1958 of the village of Bang Chan near Bangkok. From the improvised fieldwork in a north-east province the impression one gets is that some factors that divide and cause conflict within other societies are absent or at least well concealed in Thailand. The Thai intelligence is pragmatic rather than theoretical and hitherto sociology has had no very great appeal in Thailand. Of countries in the list, the one most fitted by temperament and intellectual tradition to produce its own sociologists is probably Vietnam. Unfortunately the widespread political disturbance is an adverse factor.