Christianity in Thailand
Around 1510, the Italian merchant Ludovico di Varthema was accompanied in southeast Asia by two Christian guides from Sarnau (probably Shahr-i Naw, the Persian name for Ayutthaya).
Varthema also recorded that the King of Pegu employed 1,000 Christians soldiers recruited from the Ayutthaya Kingdom and that they wrote their script from right to left.
Although it is probable that these accounts are exaggerated to impress westerners, it is possible that these first Christians in Thailand were descendants of Nestorians who had fled China after the fall of the Yuan dynasty in 1368.
[2] The modern history of Christianity in Thailand begins with the work of missionaries or foreign religious workers.
These two both switched affiliations to the American Missionary Association (AMA) in 1848 over their support for the Finney revival emphasis on "perfectionism" that the Congregationalist parent organization found unorthodox, effectively ending the work of the ABCFM in Siam.
Daniel McGilvary and William Clifton Dodd were important names in the formation of the Church in Lanna Kingdom of Northern Thailand.
Other waves of European and American Protestant missions to Thailand included the Christian and Missionary Alliance in the 1930s and then again after World War II.
Evidence of this support includes 15,000 Baht given by the Department of Religion to District 14 of the Church of Christ in Thailand for youth outreach[4] as well as waiving of the cost of tickets on trains for missionaries and for Thai pastors of the denomination.
European and American missionaries introduced the printing press, western surgery, smallpox vaccinations, taught foreign languages and wrote linguistic dictionaries.
Interreligious dialogue is evidenced by such programs as the Saengtum Seminary, the Sinclair Thompson Lecture Series of Payap University, a Thailand Church History Project coordinated by the Rev.
In November 2007, Bangkok's Assumption Cathedral became the venue of ecumenical pilgrimage of trust, when Christians from different backgrounds gathered to pray together.
Non-denominational efforts and inter-agency coordination have involved such agencies as the Church's AIDS Ministry, Voice of Peace, Lamp of Thailand, World Vision, Worldwide Faith Missions, Christian Children's Fund, McKean Leprosy Hospital (now McKean Rehabilitation Institute), Klong Thuy Slum Ministries, and the Christian Development Fellowship.
As of 2000, the latest [national census data][6] currently available, 486,840 people were registered as affiliates of Christian denominations or under 1% (0.7%) of total population (60 million).
[citation needed] By the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 23,000 Catholic adherents, 55 churches and chapels, representatives of monastic orders, and social and educational institutions (orphanages, schools and a seminary and college).
[12] On 22 October 1989, the catechist Philip Siphong Onphitak and six companions (nuns and laymen), who had been executed by Thai police during the Franco-Thai War of 1940 on the suspicion that they were French spies, were beatified as the Martyrs of Thailand.
Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists are recognized by local authorities as separate Protestant denominations and organized under the same umbrella group.
[citation needed] There are many foreign missionaries and residents who are establishing churches and prayer groups throughout Thailand.
Another evangelistic missionary organization, OMF International, has an outreach to place Christian teachers in the kingdom's schools.
[25] Besides main parish of Saint Nicholas' Cathedral in Bangkok, there are several Russian Orthodox communes including:[26] The mission is headed by Father Oleg Cherepanin (by 2008 information)[25] and serves not only Russian tourists and residents in Thailand, but also local believers of Thai origin.
