Hi ven,

> One thing they say is that Pali used to be the common language of
> the Thai people, that Sanskrit is new to Thailand, and 50 years

ago

> all of the Sanskrit spellings like "piksu (bhikkhu)" were Pali.

How

> long has Sanskrit been a part of the Thai language?

This i don't know exactly, but i understand that there has long been
a Skt influence in Thai. The old Thai kingdom of Auytthaya was
obviously based on Rama's capital of Ayudhya in the Ramayana.

>
> As I say, I was interested to see myself that India is full of

Bodhi

> trees, and when I mentioned it to the man responsible for these
> websites, he seemed quite agitated and asked whether they grew by
> themselves or were planted there (to maintain the illusion, I
> suppose).

A bit like the Christians who insist the fossils were planted by God
in order to test people's faith in Creation...

in Dhamma

Ven Sujato