Southern Thailand in the context of "Tambralinga"

The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Thailand, and the southernmost tip of Myanmar (Kawthaung). The island country of Singapore also has historical and cultural ties with the region.

The Titiwangsa Mountains are part of the Tenasserim Hills system and form the backbone of the peninsula and the southernmost section of the central cordillera, which runs from Tibet through the Kra Isthmus, the peninsula's narrowest point, into the Malay Peninsula. The Strait of Malacca separates the Malay Peninsula from the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and the south coast is separated from the island of Singapore by the Straits of Johor.

The Malay world or Malay realm (Indonesian/Malay: Dunia Melayu or Alam Melayu) or Malaysphere is a political concept or an expression that has been used by different authors and groups over time to denote several different notions, derived from varied interpretations of 'Malay' either as an ethnic group, as a racial category, as a linguistic group or as a cultural group. The use of the term Malay in much of the conceptualisation is largely based on the prevalent Malay cultural influence, manifested in particular through the spread of the Malay language in Southeast Asia as observed by different colonial powers during the Age of Discovery and spread of Islam. The term remains highly controversial in Indonesia and outside the Malay-speaking areas, because it is considered politically charged and irredentist rather than purely cultural.

The concept in its broadest territorial stretch may apply to a region synonymous with Austronesia, homeland to the Austronesian peoples, that extends from Easter Island in the east to Madagascar in the west. Such description has its origin in the introduction of the term Malay race in the late 18th century that has been popularised by orientalists to describe the Austronesian peoples. In the development of further research, the Malay race was categorized as a Malayo-Polynesian languages. In a narrower sense, the Malay world has been used as a synonym for Malay sprachraum, referring to the Malay-speaking countries and territories of Southeast Asia, where different standards of Malay are the national languages or a variety of it is an important minority language. The term in this sense encompasses Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Southern Thailand, and is sometimes used interchangeably with the concepts of 'Malay Archipelago' and 'Nusantara'.

The Titiwangsa Mountains (Malay: Banjaran Titiwangsa, pronounced [ˈband͡ʒaˈran titiwaŋˈsa]), also known as Banjaran Besar (lit. 'main range') by locals, is the chain of mountains that forms the backbone of the Malay Peninsula. The northern section of the range is in southern Thailand, where it is known as the Sankalakhiri Range (Thai: ทิวเขาสันกาลาคีรี; RTGS: Thio Khao Sankalakhiri; pronounced [tʰīw kʰǎw sǎn.kāːlāːkʰīːrīː]).

The mountain range acts as a natural divider, dividing Peninsular Malaysia, as well as southernmost Thailand, into east and west coast regions. It also serves as a drainage divide of some major rivers of Peninsular Malaysia such as the Pahang, Perak, Kelantan, Klang and Muar. The length of mountain range is about 480 km from north to south.

The Kra Isthmus (Thai: คอคอดกระ, pronounced [kʰɔ̄ː kʰɔ̂ːt kràʔ]; Malay: Segenting Kra), also called the Isthmus of Kra in Thailand, is the narrowest part of the Malay Peninsula. The western part of the isthmus belongs to Ranong province and the eastern part to Chumphon province, both in Southern Thailand. At its narrowest point, between the Thai cities of Kra Buri and Chumphon, the coastal distance between the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand is only 44 km (27 mi).

The Kra Isthmus marks the boundary between two sections of the mountain chain which runs from Tibet through the Malay peninsula. The southern part is the Phuket Range, which is a continuation of the Tenasserim Hills, extending further northwards for over 400 km (250 mi) beyond the Three Pagodas Pass.

Yala (Thai: ยะลา, pronounced [já(ʔ).lāː] Malay: Jala) is the southernmost Province (changwat) of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from northwest clockwise) Songkhla, Pattani, and Narathiwat. Yala is one of two landlocked provinces in southern Thailand, the other being Phatthalung. Its southern part borders Kedah and Perak of Malaysia.

Thai people, historically known as Siamese people, are an ethnic group native to Thailand. In a narrower and ethnic sense, the Thais are also a Tai ethnic group dominant in Central and Southern Thailand (Siam proper). Part of the larger Tai ethno-linguistic group native to Southeast Asia as well as Southern China, Thais speak the Sukhothai languages (Central Thai and Southern Thai language), which is classified as part of the Kra–Dai family of languages. The majority of Thais are followers of Theravada Buddhism.

Government policies during the late 1930s and early 1940s resulted in the successful forced assimilation of various ethno-linguistic groups into the country's dominant Central Thai language and culture, leading to the term Thai people to come to refer to the population of Thailand overall. This includes other subgroups of the Tai ethno-linguistic group, such as the Northern Thais and the Isan people, as well as non-Southeast Asian and non-Tai groups, the largest of which is that of the Han Chinese, who form a substantial minority ethnic group in Thailand.

The term Negrito (/nɪˈɡriːtoʊ/; lit. 'little black person') refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa, and the Sentinelese) of the Andaman Islands, the Semang peoples (among them, the Batek people) of Peninsular Malaysia, the Maniq people of Southern Thailand, as well as the Aeta of Luzon, the Ati and Tumandok of Panay, the Mamanwa of Mindanao, and about 30 other officially recognized ethnic groups in the Philippines.

A pesantren is a traditional Islamic boarding school in Indonesia. Pesantren are usually in private houses, a pondok or a mosque. The teachings include classical Islamic texts and santri thought, taught by instructors called kyais. According to one popular tradition, the pesantren education system originated from traditional Javanese pondokan, dormitories, ashrams for Hindus or viharas for Buddhists to learn religious philosophies, martial arts, and meditation. Institutions much like them are found across the Islamic world and are called pondok in Malaysia, Southern Thailand and madrasas in India and Pakistan and much of the Arabic-speaking world. The pesantren aims to deepen knowledge of the Quran, particularly through the study of Arabic, traditions of exegesis, the Sayings of the Prophet, law and logic. The term pesantren derives from the root word santri ("student") -- pe-santri-an or the place of the santri.

As social institutions, pesantren have played a major role in Indonesia over the centuries. They emphasise core values of sincerity, simplicity, individual autonomy, solidarity and self-control. Young men and women are separated from their families, which contributes to a sense of individual commitment to the faith and close bonding to a teacher.

Phang Nga Bay (Thai: อ่าวพังงา, RTGS: ao phangnga [ʔàːw pʰāŋ.ŋāː]) is a 400 km (150 sq mi) bay in the Andaman Sea between the island of Phuket and the mainland of the Kra Isthmus of southern Thailand. Since 1981, an extensive section of the bay has been protected as the Ao Phang Nga National Park. The park is in Phang Nga Province, at 8°17′N 98°36′E / 8.283°N 98.600°E / 8.283; 98.600.

Limestone cliffs with caves, collapsed cave systems, and archaeological sites are found about Phang Nga Bay. Around 10,000 years ago, when sea levels were lower, it was possible to walk from Phuket and Krabi.