Ram Khamhaeng

Ram Khamhaeng the Great (c. 1239–1298) was the third king of Sukhothai, which he ruled from about 1279 at the height of its prosperity, and the king traditionally credited with giving the Thais their alphabet. Son of the kingdom's founder Si Inthrathit, he bore a name meaning ‘brave Rama’.

His campaigns are thought to have carried Sukhothai's influence to Vientiane, Nakhon Si Thammarat and the Mon lands, and in 1295 the Yuan court told him to stop attacking Malayu. From 1282 he sent embassies to Yuan China.

In 1283 he created the Thai script from Khmer and related alphabets and made Theravada Buddhism the state religion. A bell in Sukhothai let subjects summon him, and the 1292 stele, traditionally his, is the earliest Thai text. The Yuan History says he died in 1298; tradition says he was lost in the rapids at Sawankhalok. His son Loe Thai succeeded him.