Sukhothai Kingdom

The Sukhothai Kingdom was a post-classical Siamese kingdom in mainland Southeast Asia centered on the ancient city of Sukhothai in what is now north-central Thailand, which developed from a regional trading hub into a city-state around 1127 before emerging as an independent kingdom under Si Inthrathit in 1238. Sukhothai is traditionally credited in Thai historiography with major cultural developments including the creation of the Thai script under King Ramkhamhaeng, and the kingdom's art and religious architecture, closely tied to Theravada Buddhism, strongly influenced later Thai artistic and religious traditions. The kingdom controlled a substantial area of what is now central and northern Thailand at its height in the late thirteenth century, but its influence contracted over the following century and a half. Sukhothai existed as an independent polity until 1438, when, following the death of its last ruler Borommapan, it came under the growing influence of the neighboring and increasingly dominant Ayutthaya Kingdom.