'Golden Land' in Thailand

'Golden Land' in Thailand

BANGKOK (DPA): A treasure-trove of 2,000 year-old artifacts recently discovered in Thailand's western province of Kanchanaburi suggest that the border province could have been the center of the "Golden Land" civilization, a news report said on Wednesday.

Lamps, gold rings adorned with sheep heads, stone axes and colored stones were dug up at Don Ta Phet village in Kanchanaburi Province, about 100 kilometers west of Bangkok, during archeological digs between Aug. 9 and Sept. 10, said The Nation newspaper.

The new discoveries, estimated to be more than 2,000 years old, suggest that Kanchanaburi, which borders Myanmar (Burma), could have been the true center of the so-called "Suwannaphum" civilization, or "Golden Land," an ancient description of the fertile central plains regions stretching from Myanmar across Thailand to western Cambodia that was formerly ruled by the Mon- Khmer people.