Thailand is one of the friendliest countries in the world for tourists. It has many attractions both exquisite and weird for people with tastes that vary between either ends of the spectrum. It has a culture and history that brings out the explorer out of the most disinterested and food that tickles the palette of even the non-foodies. There are so many more facts about Thailand that will leave you with a longing to visit this beautiful country, and we have listed some of them for you to read.

1 Buddhism is Thailand’s main religion. It is practiced by almost 93.6% of the population.

In the country Buddhism has become part of the local folk religions and is heavily influenced by Theravada school. Buddhism itself had come to most of the Southeast Asian countries during the period between 5th and 13th centuries from India.(source)

2 Among all the Southeast Asian counties, Thailand is the only one that has never been colonized by Europeans.

In the 19th and early 20th century the British and the French have decided not to colonize Thailand. They felt that it would serve as a neutral area for preventing conflicts between their colonies. Before democracy Thailand had monarchy until 1932 and sixty years of military rule.(source)

3 Thailand has 1,430 islands including the famous Koh Phi Phi, Phuket and Koh Lipe. Koh Phi Phi was featured in Danny Boyle’s movie The Beach.

The beaches and the islands are some of Thailand’s famous retreats and exotic locations for tourism. Depending on the location, all the islands come under three main categories – the Andaman sea island group, the southern Gulf of Thailand island group and the east of Bangkok island group.(source)

4  Bangkok has a very long ceremonial name – “Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit”.

It translates to “City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra’s behest”.

The name was given during the reign of King Mongkut and is made of words from both Pali and Sanskrit. The short name of the city Bangkok means “a village situated on the stream” as there are many islands with many rivers and canals crisscrossing often.(source)

5 The world’s smallest mammal, Kitti’s hog-nosed bat, is found in western parts of Thailand. It is just two to three centimeters long and weighs only 2 grams.

These bats, as their name suggests, are characterized by their pig snout like nose. These vulnerable species enjoy living in the limestone caves along the rivers and feed on insects in the forests surrounding them. As mammals can only give one offspring at a time these species are becoming extinct because of habitation destruction.(source)