Vannakkam Jeff
Yes. Even the music, dances, festivals, traditional games, languages and place names have Hindu roots. For example, your neighbouring country, Laos, and the city of Lopburi in your own country were both named after Lava, a son of Rama and Sita.
Most if not all Southeast Asian languages have Sanskrit words. Being very fluent in the Malay language myself, I would say that up to 50% of the language comes from Sanskrit, and to a smaller extent, Tamil. The rest mostly come from Indonesian(which in turn comes from Sanskrit mostly), English and Arabic. But Sanskrit is no doubt the biggest contributor.
Though the Balinese (themselves descendants of fleeing Javanese Hindus) and a few rural Indonesian pockets are the only ones of all the Southeast Asian native communities who still remain Hindu, it is suffice to conclude that the Indochinese, especially Thais, are almost completely Hindu too, even though they're Buddhists. The gracefulness you mentioned of in these cultures have a strong, unmistaken Hindu influence to them.
I holidayed in Hat Yai and Songkhla in Southern Thailand 2 years ago. Love the place.
Here's an interesting website I found and bookmarked about Hindu and Tamil influence in Thai culture that might be of interest to you:
http://tamilnation.co/conferences/cn...hisundaram.htm
Aum Namah Shivaya
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