Rama Khamhaeng

Ramkhamhaeng (, ), commonly known as Pho Khun Ramkhamhaeng the Great (, ), was the third king of the Phra Ruang dynasty, ruling the Sukhothai Kingdom—a historical polity in what is now Thailand—from 1279 to 1298, during its most prosperous era.

He is credited with the creation of the Thai alphabet and with firmly establishing Theravada Buddhism as the state religion of the kingdom.

Birth and name Ramkhamhaeng (sometimes written Ram Khamhaeng) was a son of Pho Khun Bang Klang Hao, who ruled as Pho Khun Si Inthrathit, and his queen, Sueang, though folk legend claims his real parents were an ogress named Kangli and a fisherman. He had two brothers and two sisters. The eldest brother died while very young. The second, Ban Mueang, became king following their father's death and was succeeded by Ramkhamhaeng on his death.

At the age of 19, he took part in his father's successful campaign to capture the city of Sukhothai, which had formerly been a vassal of the Khmer Empire. The victory established Sukhothai as an independent kingdom. Owing to his courage in battle, he was reportedly granted the title "Phra Ram Khamhaeng" ("Rama the Bold"). and in Burma to the present.

Reign Ramkhamhaeng sent embassies to Yuan China from 1282 to 1323 and imported the techniques to make the ceramics now known as Sangkhalok ceramic ware. He had close relationships with the rulers of nearby city-states, especially Ngammueang, the ruler of neighboring Phayao kingdom (whose wife, according to legend, he seduced), and King Mangrai of Chiang Mai.

According to Thai history, Ramkhamhaeng is credited with creating the Thai alphabet (Lai Nangsue Thai) from a combination of the Khmer, Sanskrit, Pali, and Grantha alphabets.

It is speculated that Ramkhamhaeng expanded his kingdom as far as Lampang, Phrae, and Nan in the north, Phitsanulok and Vientiane in the east, the Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom in the south, the Mon kingdoms of what is now Myanmar in the west, and the Bay of Bengal in the northwest. The Thais also expanded south towards the Malay Peninsula, the History of Yuan mentions “since the people of Sien and of Ma- li-yü-erh have long been killing each other and are all in submission at this moment, an imperial order has been issued telling the people of Sien: do no harm to the Ma-li-yii-erh and hold to your promise.“ However, in the mandala political model, kingdoms such as Sukhothai lacked distinct borders, instead being centered on the strength of the capital itself. Claims of Ramkhamhaeng's large kingdom were intended to assert Siamese dominance over mainland Southeast Asia. The same inscription advertises Sukhothai as a place where anyone may trade in elephants, horses, silver or gold, It is now found in the Bangkok National Museum. The formal name of the stele is the "King Ramkhamhaeng Inscription". It was added to the Memory of the World Register in 2003 by UNESCO.

The stele's claim that Ramkhamhaeng devised Tai letters has been read narrowly. Hans Penth argued that Tai had been written in South Indian, Grantha, Mōn and Khmer alphabets for as much as two centuries earlier, and David K. Wyatt notes that the text speaks of "these Tai letters", claiming only one particular form: what was devised was the writing of vowels on the line and the dropping of tone marks. Wyatt also uses the length of Ramkhamhaeng's reign, which ran into the 1290s, to argue that his father Si Inthrathit cannot have taken Sukhothai as early as 1220 and probably did so about 1243; and he takes the Annals of the North tradition that Ramkhamhaeng studied at Lopburi in 1254 under the same teacher as Ngam Mueang of Phayao as a caution against reading later political identities backwards, since Lopburi would on a modern reading have been enemy country.

Honour Ramkhamhaeng University, the first Thai university with an open-door policy and with campuses throughout the country was named after Ramkhamhaeng.

Video games King Ramkhamhaeng is a playable ruler for the Siamese in Sid Meier's Civilization V.