| |
| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Siam (Thailand) |
 | | Siam, "the land of the White Elephant" or the country of the Muang Thai (the Free), is situated in the south-eastern corner of Asia, lying between 4° and 21° north lat. |
 | | It is bounded on the north by Tong-king and the southern states of Burma, on the east by Annam and Cambodia, on the south by the Gulf of Siam and the Malay Peninsula, and on the west by the Indian Ocean, and thus forms a buffer state between French and British possessions. |
 | | Siam, in those days the rendezvous of all commercial enterprise in the East, gave shelter to several hundred Annamite and Japanese Christians who had been expelled or lived there as voluntary exiles on account of persecutions at home. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/13765a.htm (1646 words) |
|