Tai peoples lived in the lowland and river valleys of mainland Southeast Asia.
Assorted ethnic and linguistic group lived in the hills.
The Tai village consisted of nuclear families working as subsistence rice farmers, living in small houses elevated above the ground.
Households bonded together for protection from external attacks and to share the burden of communal repairs and maintenance.
Within the village, a council of elders was created to help settle problems, organise festivals and rites and manage the village.
Village would combine to form a Mueang (Thai: เมือง), a group of villages governed by a Chao (Thai: เจ้า) (lord).
When Tai people settled in Central Plain of Thailand, the Cambodian ruler saw Tai people as barbarian, who came from China, and named them as Siem (Khmer: សៀម) in Khmer language.
The Tai lords adopted both Mon alphabet and Khmer alphabet, which the Tai developed into their own writing systems as Tai Tham alphabet, for the Thai Yuan people in the north, and Khom-Thai alphabet, for the Siamese Tai in the lower region.
The Siamese also called themselves as Tai or Thai and called Lavo as "Lopburi" in Tai dialect language.

Settled in the rural fringes of the Khmer Empire and in upper Laos, the Tai peoples, united by their lords, were becoming a formidable threat to the Khmer Empire.
Despite intermarriage between the Tai and the Khmer ruling families, the Tai people kept their distinct cultural and ethnic identity, retaining their own languages and units of social organisation.
Tai peoples lived in the lowland and river valleys of mainland Southeast Asia. Assorted ethnic and linguistic group lived in the hills. The Tai village consisted of nuclear families working as subsistence rice farmers, living in small houses elevated above the ground. Households bonded together for protection from external attacks and to share the burden of communal repairs and maintenance. Within the village, a council of elders was created to help settle problems, organise festivals and rites and manage the village. Village would combine to form a Mueang (Thai: เมือง), a group of villages governed by a Chao (Thai: เจ้า) (lord). When Tai people settled in Central Plain of Thailand, the Cambodian ruler saw Tai people as barbarian, who came from China, and named them as Siem (Khmer: សៀម) in Khmer language. The Tai lords adopted both Mon alphabet and Khmer alphabet, which the Tai developed into their own writing systems as Tai Tham alphabet, for the Thai Yuan people in the north, and Khom-Thai alphabet, for the Siamese Tai in the lower region. The Siamese also called themselves as Tai or Thai and called Lavo as "Lopburi" in Tai dialect language.
Settled in the rural fringes of the Khmer Empire and in upper Laos, the Tai peoples, united by their lords, were becoming a formidable threat to the Khmer Empire. Despite intermarriage between the Tai and the Khmer ruling families, the Tai people kept their distinct cultural and ethnic identity, retaining their own languages and units of social organisation.
Lavo Kingdom