Goerwitz

Pannavit (Benz) and Jariya by the old-city ruins at Sukhotai.

If you ask Thais, they will tell you that Sukhotai was the first great capital of their country (the second being Ayyuthaya being the third and Bangkok). You will hear this also in official literature and at festivals, e.g., in Loi Krathong celebrations at Sukhotai.

This is of course true in a sense. But the full picture is more complex.

In reality, there were a number of different Thai peoples and kingdoms at various times, centering on various city-states (called Muang). These city states were often at war with non-Thai peoples, and also with each other. Eventually the Thai state centered in the central portion of Thailand won out over others, through diplomacy as much as by war. But internally, within Thailand, old divisions still persist, especially between the old kingdoms of Lan Na (centered around Chiang Mail), Lan Sang (Laos and northeastern Thailand), and the central Thais living around Bangkok.

The central Thai government propagates its culture and language aggressively throughout the modern political boundaries of Thailand, presumably in efforts to create and consolidate one common culture out of what were, in reality, a series of closely related, but distinct, cultures.