98 Fun Facts About Thailand

Before 1939, Thailand was known to the outside world by what name?

Siam was the kingdom's name until 24 June 1939, when the government renamed it Thailand; the name reverted to Siam from 1945 to 1949 before Thailand became permanent.

Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia never to have been what?

Thailand was never colonised by a European power: its 19th-century kings ceded outlying territory to the neighbouring colonial empires and kept the heartland as an independent buffer state.

Which of these countries does NOT share a land border with Thailand?

Malaysia is the fourth land neighbour; Vietnam is only a maritime neighbour across the Gulf of Thailand.

How many letters long is Bangkok's full ceremonial name, listed by Guinness as the world's longest place name?

Bangkok's ceremonial name, beginning Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin, runs to 168 letters, the Guinness record for a place name; Thais shorten it to Krung Thep, 'city of angels'.

King Rama I, founder of the Chakri dynasty, moved the capital to Bangkok in which year?

Rama I founded Bangkok as the Chakri capital in 1782, moving the court across the Chao Phraya from Thonburi, where King Taksin had ruled after the old capital's fall.

Siam became a constitutional monarchy after a revolution led by the People's Party in which year?

The People's Party seized power on 24 June 1932, ending absolute monarchy; King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) granted a permanent constitution that December.

Songkran, the traditional Thai New Year famous for its water fights, begins on which date?

Songkran begins on 13 April, the traditional solar New Year, and runs for three days; the water fights grew out of pouring scented water over Buddha images and elders' hands as a blessing.

Muay Thai is nicknamed the 'Art of Eight Limbs' because it uses fists, elbows, knees and what else?

Muay Thai's eight limbs are the two fists, two elbows, two knees and two shins; fighters condition their shins to kick and block, making the shin strike the sport's signature weapon.

Which Thai dish placed fourth in CNN's 2011 readers' poll of the world's best foods?

Tom yum kung, the hot-and-sour prawn soup, placed fourth in CNN's 2011 readers' poll, ahead of pad thai (fifth), som tam (sixth) and massaman curry (tenth).

Which three aromatics are the signature base of tom yum soup?

Lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves are bruised and simmered in the broth to give tom yum its citrus-and-ginger aroma; they stay in the bowl but are not eaten.

Thailand's beloved dessert of glutinous rice, fresh fruit and coconut milk is made with which fruit?

Mango sticky rice (khao niao mamuang) pairs ripe nam dok mai mango with glutinous rice sweetened in coconut milk and palm sugar, and peaks in the hot season from March to May when mangoes ripen.

Which strong-smelling fruit is banned on public transport in Bangkok?

Durian, the spiky 'king of fruits', is barred from Bangkok's BTS Skytrain and MRT and from many hotels because its sulphurous smell lingers for days; its seeds are edible when cooked.

What share of Thailand's population identified as Buddhist in the 2018 national statistics?

About 93% of Thais (93.5%) told the 2018 National Statistical Office survey they were Buddhist, against 5.4% Muslim and 1.1% Christian; only China has more Buddhists.

The traditional Thai greeting, a slight bow with palms pressed together, is called what?

The wai, palms pressed together at chest, chin or brow with a slight bow, is Thailand's everyday greeting and thanks; the higher the hands are held, the more respect is shown.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned for 70 years, was born in which country?

Bhumibol was born in the United States on 5 December 1927, at Cambridge Hospital (now Mount Auburn) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while his father Prince Mahidol studied public health at Harvard.

Bhumibol's reign of 70 years and 126 days ended with his death in which year?

Bhumibol died on 13 October 2016 at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, aged 88, after the longest reign of any Thai king; his son Vajiralongkorn succeeded him as Rama X.

King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), who modernised Siam, is best remembered for abolishing what?

He abolished slavery in stages, from an 1874 decree freeing children born to slaves to the 1905 Slave Abolition Act, reforms shaped by his study of colonial administration in British India and Java.

'The King and I' is based on the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who taught which Siamese king's children?

Anna Leonowens arrived in Bangkok in 1862 as governess to King Mongkut (Rama IV), teaching English to his wives and children; her memoirs inspired the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

Which Thai kingdom, founded in 1351, was destroyed by a Burmese army after a 14-month siege in 1767?

Ayutthaya, founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1351, fell in April 1767 after a siege of about 14 months; the invaders razed the city, and King Taksin then moved the capital downriver to Thonburi.

Which kingdom, established in 1238, is traditionally called 'the first Thai kingdom'?

Sukhothai, founded around 1238, is conventionally counted as the first Thai kingdom; its ruins, with their lotus-bud chedis, form a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1991.

Chiang Mai, whose name means 'new city', was founded in 1296 as the capital of which northern kingdom?

Lan Na, the 'kingdom of a million rice fields', was ruled from Chiang Mai after King Mangrai founded the city on the Ping River in 1296, moving his court south from an earlier capital.

Phuket, Thailand's largest island, originally built its wealth on rubber and which mineral?

Tin mining, worked largely by Chinese migrant labour from the 19th century, made Phuket rich long before tourism; European sailors charted the island as Junk Ceylon, and old mining pits still dot its interior.

Maya Bay, made famous by 'The Beach', closed to tourists in 2018 and reopened in which year?

Overtourism had wrecked the cove's coral and environment; it reopened in early 2022.

Thailand's currency, the baht, began life as a traditional unit of what?

Its value was originally that of silver of the same weight, cast into 'bullet coins' from the Sukhothai era.

Which animal is Thailand's official national animal?

White elephants, prized as symbols of royal power, must by a 1921 law be presented to the king.

Before 1917, Thailand's flag showed a white elephant on a field of which colour?

The pre-1917 flag was a white elephant on a plain red field; King Vajiravudh replaced it with the red-white-blue Trairanga on 28 September 1917, keeping red to stand for the nation.

Which Thai temple on the west bank of the Chao Phraya is named after a Hindu god of the dawn?

Wat Arun takes its name from Aruna, charioteer of the sun god Surya, and is known as the Temple of Dawn; its porcelain-encrusted central prang rises on the Thonburi bank opposite the Grand Palace.

Thailand's most sacred image, the Emerald Buddha, is actually carved from what?

The Emerald Buddha is carved from green jade or jasper, not emerald; the 66-centimetre figure was found in 1434 when stucco flaked off a statue in a northern chedi struck by lightning, revealing the stone beneath.

Loy Krathong falls on the full moon of which month of the Thai lunar calendar?

Loy Krathong is held on the full moon of the 12th Thai lunar month, usually in November, when people float candle-lit krathong baskets on rivers to honour the water goddess Phra Mae Khongkha.

Krating Daeng, the Thai energy drink that inspired Red Bull, is named after which animal?

Chaleo Yoovidhya launched it in 1976 for rural labourers, and its logo shows two red gaurs charging at each other.

Chang and Eng Bunker, born in Siam in 1811, gave the world what phrase?

Joined at the chest, Chang and Eng toured as 'the Siamese twins', and the phrase became the generic term for conjoined twins; they settled in North Carolina, married the Yates sisters and fathered 21 children.

Which president received the first documented Siamese cat to reach America, in 1878?

Rutherford B. Hayes's wife Lucy received a Siamese cat in 1878 from David Sickels, the American consul in Bangkok; the pet lived at the White House until it died in 1879.

The Death Railway, built by forced labour for the Japanese in World War II, linked Thailand with where?

The railway ran 415 km from Ban Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Burma, built in 1942-43; an estimated 90,000 Asian labourers and about 12,000 Allied prisoners died on it.

The 1957 film 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', set on that railway, won how many Academy Awards?

The Bridge on the River Kwai won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for David Lean and Best Actor for Alec Guinness; it was shot in Ceylon, not Thailand.

The Full Moon Party, called the world's largest beach rave, takes place on which Thai island?

Ko Pha-ngan's Full Moon Party began at Haad Rin beach around 1985 as a small travellers' gathering and grew into a monthly rave drawing up to 30,000 people to the sand.

Bangkok's Grand Palace remained the working seat of the king and government until which year?

The Grand Palace was the seat of the king, his court and the royal government until 1925; later kings lived elsewhere, Bhumibol at Chitralada Villa, but the palace remains the ceremonial centre of state.

Which year's Calendar Year Act moved Thailand's official New Year from 1 April to 1 January?

The Calendar Year Act of 1940 made 1 January 1941 the first day of B.E. 2484, so the year 2483 ran only nine months, from April to December 1940.

Muay Thai's international amateur federation, IFMA, was founded in which year?

IFMA was founded in 1993 as the amateur federation for Muay Thai, which it spells muaythai; it gained full International Olympic Committee recognition in 2021 and runs the annual world championships.

Which Portuguese explorer, in Siam in 1545, wrote an early European account calling Phuket 'Junk Ceylon'?

Fernão Mendes Pinto, the Portuguese adventurer whose memoir Peregrinação recounts his years in Asia, served the Siamese crown in the 1540s and mentions Junk Ceylon, the old European name for Phuket.

Thailand was a founding member of which regional bloc?

Thailand was one of the five founders of ASEAN, signing the Bangkok Declaration on 8 August 1967 alongside four other Southeast Asian states.

Ban Chiang in northeast Thailand is Southeast Asia's earliest known centre of what craft?

Ban Chiang's graves held bronze bangles and spearheads cast more than 2,500 years ago, the earliest known copper and bronze working in Southeast Asia; UNESCO listed the site in 1992 for its metallurgy and painted pottery.

What is Thailand's highest peak, rising 2,565 metres in the Thanon Thong Chai Range?

It lies in the mountainous Thai highlands of the north.

How many provinces (changwat) make up Thailand?

Thailand has 76 provinces (changwat), plus Bangkok as a special administrative area; the newest, Bueng Kan, was carved from Nong Khai in 2011, and governors are appointed by the Interior Ministry.

Which military strongman renamed Siam as Thailand in 1939?

An admirer of Mussolini, Phibun imposed 12 cultural mandates requiring citizens to salute the flag, speak only Thai and wear Western clothing.

Whose 'Declaration of Peace' spared Thailand defeated-nation status after World War II?

The Free Thai Movement (Seri Thai), the wartime resistance led by regent Pridi Banomyong, issued the Declaration of Peace on 16 August 1945, voiding the 1942 declaration of war; Washington never treated Thailand as an enemy state.

Which two European powers agreed in 1896 to make the Chao Phraya valley a buffer state?

Britain and France signed a joint declaration in January 1896 guaranteeing the independence of the Chao Phraya valley, leaving the kingdom as a buffer between their colonial holdings to the west and east.

Roughly how many international tourists visited Thailand in 2019?

Thailand welcomed 39.8 million international visitors in 2019, roughly 40 million and a pre-pandemic record; the UNWTO ranked it fourth in the world for tourism receipts that year at about US$60.5 billion.

Which general led the junta that ruled Thailand from the 2014 coup until 2019?

Prayut Chan-o-cha, then army chief, seized power on 22 May 2014 and headed the National Council for Peace and Order until it dissolved in July 2019; he stayed on as prime minister until 2023.

In which year did Portuguese envoys first arrive in Ayutthaya, opening European contact with Siam?

Duarte Fernandes reached the court of King Ramathibodi II in 1511, sent by Afonso de Albuquerque straight after the Portuguese capture of Malacca; the Dutch, English and French followed in the 17th century.

In 2018, a boys' football team was rescued from a flooded cave in which Thai province?

Tham Luang cave lies in Chiang Rai province's Mae Sai district; British divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton found the 13 alive on 2 July 2018, nine days after they entered, on a ledge deep inside the flooded system.

What was the name of the junior football team trapped in Tham Luang cave in 2018?

The Wild Boars (Moo Pa) were 12 boys aged 11 to 16 and their adult assistant coach; all 13 were sedated, fitted with masks and dived out between 8 and 10 July 2018.

Sepak takraw, Thailand's kick-volleyball game, uses a ball traditionally woven from what?

The traditional sepak takraw ball is hand-woven from strips of rattan into a hollow sphere with 12 holes and 20 intersections; synthetic balls have replaced it in international competition, which the Asian Games added in 1990.

In 2019 Thailand officially named which creature its national aquatic animal?

The Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) was declared the national aquatic animal by the cabinet in February 2019; it gulps air through a labyrinth organ and so survives in stagnant paddy water.

Thailand's national anthem is played in public at 8 am and at what other time daily?

The anthem sounds at 8 am and 6 pm, when the flag is raised and lowered, and people pause in stations, parks and schools until it ends; the twice-daily broadcast accompanies the flag ceremony.

Pattaya went from fishing village to resort when servicemen from which war came on leave?

The Americans came for R&R in the 1960s; today Beach Road runs 2.7 km south to the entrance of Walking Street.

Thai green curry owes its colour mainly to which ingredient?

Fresh green chilies pounded into the curry paste give green curry its colour; its Thai name, khiao-wan, means 'sweet green' and refers to the pale shade the coconut milk produces, not the taste.

Panipak Wongpattanakit won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 in which sport?

Panipak Wongpattanakit took taekwondo gold in the women's 49 kg class at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, after a bronze on her Olympic debut in Rio, becoming the first Thai athlete to win two Olympic golds.

The 2003 martial-arts film 'Ong-Bak' made an international star of which Thai actor?

Tony Jaa, born Tatchakorn Yeerum, performed Ong-Bak's stunts without wires or CGI under his mentor, choreographer Panna Rittikrai; the film's success later took him to Hollywood in Furious 7 (2015).

Queen Sirikit's birthday, 12 August, is marked nationally in Thailand as what?

Thailand's Mother's Day falls on 12 August, Queen Sirikit's birthday, and has been a public holiday since 1976; the matching Father's Day is 5 December, King Bhumibol's birthday.

Bangkok's Chatuchak, with more than 15,000 stalls, is the world's largest what?

Chatuchak is billed as the world's largest weekend market: more than 15,000 stalls in 27 sections on a 35-acre site in northern Bangkok, drawing some 200,000 visitors on a Saturday or Sunday; it moved there in 1982.

King Bhumibol was a keen jazz musician, best known for playing which instrument?

Bhumibol played the saxophone, taking it up around 1942 after classical lessons in Switzerland; he jammed with Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton and composed dozens of jazz tunes, including 'Candlelight Blues'.

Ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra bought which English football club in 2007?

Thaksin Shinawatra bought Manchester City for £81.6 million in July 2007 and sold it to Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour in September 2008; he had earlier failed to buy Fulham and Liverpool.

Who became Thailand's first female prime minister in 2011?

Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's younger sister, took office in August 2011 after Pheu Thai's election win and governed until the Constitutional Court removed her on 7 May 2014, two weeks before the coup.

Because so many people lived on its canals, 19th-century Bangkok was nicknamed what?

Nineteenth-century visitors called Bangkok the Venice of the East because most residents lived along or on its khlongs; many canals were later filled to make roads, and groundwater pumping has left the city sinking.

At Maeklong's Talat Rom Hup, vendors fold back their awnings daily to let what pass?

A train on the Maeklong line runs through the market about eight times a day, so vendors fold back awnings and slide trays off the rails as it passes; Talat Rom Hup means 'umbrella pulldown market'.

Kitti's hog-nosed bat, found in western Thailand, holds what record?

Kitti's hog-nosed bat is the world's smallest bat and a contender for smallest mammal, about 3 cm long and 2 grams; zoologist Kitti Thonglongya discovered it in the early 1970s in the limestone caves of Sai Yok.

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, opened in 2006, has a Sanskrit name meaning what?

Suvarnabhumi, Sanskrit for 'land of gold', was the name King Bhumibol gave the airport, replacing the site's working title of Nong Nguhao ('cobra swamp'); it opened on 28 September 2006.

Green papaya salad (som tam), eaten all over Thailand, is thought to be whose creation?

Its Lao name is tam mak hoong; in Thailand it is most at home in the northeast, where most people are ethnically Lao.

Thailand's first Olympic gold, at Atlanta 1996, came in which sport?

Somluck Kamsing won the featherweight boxing title at Atlanta 1996, Thailand's first Olympic gold; the country had competed since Helsinki 1952, and every earlier Thai medal had come in boxing too.

Thailand's 2011 floods caused a year-long global shortage of which computer component?

The World Bank put losses at US$46.5 billion, ranking it the world's fourth-costliest disaster at the time.

Established in 1962, which was Thailand's first national park?

Khao Yai, gazetted on 18 September 1962 after lobbying by conservationist Boonsong Lekagul, was Thailand's first national park; it joined UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2005 as part of the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex.

Wat Pho in Bangkok is regarded as the birthplace of which practice?

Wat Pho is the traditional home of Thai massage: Rama III had medical and massage diagrams carved into its walls in the 1830s, and the temple's school has taught the practice since 1955, beside a 46-metre reclining Buddha.

Thailand's Buddhist Era year count runs how many years ahead of the Gregorian calendar?

The Buddhist Era runs 543 years ahead of the Gregorian count, so 2026 is B.E. 2569; the era starts from the year traditionally given for the Buddha's death, 543 BCE.

Bangkok's Erawan Shrine, built in 1956 to undo a hotel's bad karma, honours which god?

The Erawan Shrine holds a gilded four-faced image of Brahma (Phra Phrom), put up in 1956 after an astrologer blamed the Erawan Hotel's construction mishaps on an inauspicious foundation date; worshippers hire dance troupes when prayers are answered.

Khao Phing Kan, Thailand's 'James Bond Island', appeared in which Roger Moore Bond film?

The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) used Khao Phing Kan in Phang Nga Bay as the lair of Scaramanga, played by Christopher Lee; the 20-metre limestone needle of Ko Ta Pu just offshore shares the James Bond nickname.

Which Thai resort area was among the places worst hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami?

Khao Lak, a low-lying resort strip in Phang Nga province, suffered Thailand's heaviest losses in the December 2004 tsunami, with waves up to 10 metres and several thousand dead, more than on Phuket or the Phi Phi islands.

How many consonant letters does the Thai script have?

Thai has 44 consonant letters, two of them obsolete, for just 21 initial sounds, plus four tone marks and vowel symbols written before, after, above or below the consonant.

Which king introduced the fork and spoon to Thai dining after touring Europe in 1897?

Chulalongkorn (Rama V) brought back Western table settings after his 1897 European tour, and Thais adapted them: the fork in the left hand pushes food into the spoon in the right, while chopsticks are kept for noodle soups.

Khao Sok National Park in southern Thailand is best known for which giant flower?

The park also holds Cheow Lan Lake, a 165 km² reservoir behind the Ratchaprapha Dam, and is thought to shelter over five percent of the world's species.

American Jim Thompson, who revived Thailand's silk industry, vanished in 1967 where?

Jim Thompson vanished in March 1967 after setting out for a walk from Moonlight Cottage in Malaysia's Cameron Highlands; the former OSS officer was declared dead in 1974, and his teak house in Bangkok is a museum.

Isan, Thailand's northeastern region, sits on which plateau?

The Khorat Plateau, a saucer of sandstone tilted towards the Mekong, underlies all 20 Isan provinces, making the northeast Thailand's largest region; the Phetchabun and Dong Phaya Yen ranges wall it off to the west.

Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet where the Mekong is joined by which small river?

The Ruak flows into the Mekong at Sop Ruak, the point where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet; the Thai bank holds the Hall of Opium museum rather than poppy fields.

Paradorn Srichaphan, first Asian man in the ATP top 10, peaked at which singles ranking?

Paradorn Srichaphan reached a career-high No. 9 in May 2003, the first Asian man in the ATP top 10, a year after beating Andre Agassi in straight sets at Wimbledon; he later married Miss Universe 2005, Natalie Glebova.

Who in 2016 became the first Thai golfer to win on the LPGA Tour?

Ariya Jutanugarn's win at the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic that May was the first LPGA Tour victory by a Thai golfer; she took the Women's British Open that July and rose to world number one in June 2017.

Which province's elephant round-up, held each November, took its modern form in the 1960s?

Surin's Elephant Round-up, first staged in 1960 and held on the third weekend of November, drew on the Kuy people's traditions of catching and training elephants; its 2003 elephant buffet set a Guinness record with 269 elephants fed 50 tonnes.

Phuket's Vegetarian Festival, known for ritual piercing, honours which Taoist deities?

The Nine Emperor Gods Festival, as it is known across the Hokkien diaspora, lasts nine days in the ninth lunar month; Phuket's version dates its start to an 1825 opera troupe's vow, and shops fly yellow 'jay' flags.

At 314 m, which 'pixelated' Bangkok tower was Thailand's tallest from 2016 to 2018?

King Power MahaNakhon, 314 m and 77 floors, carries a spiralling cut-away 'pixel' ribbon; it lost the title in 2018 to the 318-metre Magnolias Waterfront Residences at ICONSIAM.

Hua Hin's royal summer palace, Klai Kangwon, has a name that means what?

Klai Kangwon means 'far from worries'; King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) had the seaside palace built in the late 1920s, after the southern railway had turned Hua Hin into Thailand's first beach resort.

Thought extinct in the wild by 1992, the Siamese crocodile was rediscovered in 2000 where?

A Fauna & Flora International survey found wild Siamese crocodiles in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains in 2000; the species remains critically endangered, with perhaps fewer than 1,000 adults left in the wild.

Before it was floated on 2 July 1997, the baht was pegged at about how many to the dollar?

The baht had been held at about 25 to the dollar under a basket peg; after the 2 July 1997 float it slid to around 56 by January 1998, and the collapse triggered the Asian financial crisis.

Which Thai province is home to Phanom Rung, the hilltop Khmer temple dedicated to Shiva?

Phanom Rung, a 10th-to-13th-century Khmer sanctuary to Shiva, crowns an extinct volcano in Buriram province; four times a year the sun lines up with all 15 of its doorways.

The dazzling White Temple, Wat Rong Khun, in the Thai north is the work of which artist?

Chalermchai Kositpipat began Wat Rong Khun in 1997, funding the all-white, mirror-glass temple himself; its murals mix Buddhist imagery with pop figures such as Superman and Hello Kitty, and he expects work to run until around 2070.

The largest Mekong giant catfish recorded in Thailand, caught in 2005, weighed how much?

The 293 kg giant catfish, 2.7 metres long, was netted at Chiang Khong on the Mekong in May 2005, then the largest freshwater fish on record; it died despite efforts to keep it alive for a breeding programme.

How wide is the Kra Isthmus at its narrowest point between Thailand's two coasts?

The Kra Isthmus narrows to 44 km between the Kra Buri estuary on the Andaman side and Chumphon on the Gulf of Thailand; a canal across it, a Thai Suez, has been proposed for centuries but never dug.

The masked Phi Ta Khon ghost festival is held at Dan Sai in which province?

Dan Sai lies in Loei province in the upper northeast; Phi Ta Khon's masks are built from coconut-palm sheaths topped with bamboo sticky-rice steamers, painted and fitted with long wooden noses, and worn during the Bun Luang merit festival.

Krung Thep Aphiwat station took over Bangkok's long-distance trains in 2023 from which historic terminus?

Hua Lamphong, Bangkok's terminus since 1916, with an arched iron-and-glass hall by Italian architect Mario Tamagno, handed its long-distance services to Krung Thep Aphiwat on 19 January 2023.

Which stone, hailed as the oldest Thai writing, made UNESCO's Memory of the World in 2003?

The Ram Khamhaeng Inscription, a four-sided stone pillar dated 1292 and brought to Bangkok in 1833, is usually cited as the first appearance of Thai script, though some scholars question its authenticity; UNESCO registered it in 2003.

Thai Buddhist monks belong to the Maha Nikaya or which royally backed order?

Dhammayuttika ('yoked to the Dhamma') was founded in 1833 by a prince who spent 27 years as a monk before taking the throne; it keeps a stricter Vinaya discipline under royal patronage and is far smaller than the Maha Nikaya.