The first signs of human presence in India date back to the prehistoric years. The first systematically organised settlements – also known as “Indus Valley Civilisation” or “Harappa Culture”- appeared along the Indus River Valley from 3000 to 1800 BC.

The most difficult survival on the precipitous Himalayas favoured the development in Nepal and Tibet of a powerful popular faith in animistic-shamanistic beliefs that deify and demonify natural phenomena.

Cambodia has been the most significant cultural centre of Southeast Asia from the 9th until the 13th century AD. During the Khmer Empire, it extended from its current borders until South Vietnam, Laos and Central Thailand.

Siam (Thailand) has been one of the most significant centres for the Buddhist religion. The Theravada Buddhism spread to Siam from India and there it was enriched by the local religion, which was based in the deification of nature and the worship of the ancestors.

The two countries met some 2,300 years, in 326 BC, when Alexander the Great led his troops all the way through to Indus River. From 280 BC on, Greek kingdoms were created in northern Punjab by Bactrian Greeks while in 164-150 BC