Slavery in Thailand

Historical slavery

Slave is the usual English term for a historical legal personal status known in Thai as that (ทาส, pronounced , from Pali: dāsa). They formed the lowest rank in the social hierarchy system known as sakdina, which dates from the Ayutthaya period (14th–18th centuries), and were bound under servitude to a master, who according to the law "had absolute power over their slaves other than the right to take their lives". People could become slaves through various means, including being taken as war captives, through debt, and being born to slave parents. Masters' employment of their slaves varied, as was recorded by Simon de la Loubère, who visited Ayutthaya in 1687:

They employ their Slaves in cultivating their Lands and Gardens, and in some domestic Service; or rather they permit them to work to gain their livelihood, under a Tribute which they receive from four to eight Ticals a Year, that is to say, from seven Livres ten sols, to fifteen Livres.