Thailand Trivia
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95 free Thailand trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
42 free Thailand trivia questions with answers. Thailand trivia for travellers, expats and quiz nights. The 95 questions open with the basics (Siam, the borders, the elephant, the wai) and go on to the things that make the country unusual: the only Southeast Asian nation never colonised, the capital with the world's longest name, the king born in Massachusetts who reigned for 70 years, and the temple named after a Hindu god of dawn. Food gets a proper round: pad thai's surprisingly modern origins, tom yum's three aromatics, mango sticky rice, the fruit banned on Bangkok's trains and the CNN poll Thailand dominated. So do festivals (Songkran, Loy Krathong, the Full Moon Party), history (Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, Chulalongkorn, the Death Railway) and exports to the world: Muay Thai, Siamese cats, Siamese twins and the drink that became Red Bull. Every answer has been checked against a reference source, shown under each question once you answer.
30 of 95 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 46-metre gold-covered Buddha at Bangkok's Wat Pho is shown in which pose?
Reclining
Reclining Buddhas show him at the moment of passing into nirvana; Wat Pho's lies 46 metres long, with mother-of-pearl pictures of his auspicious signs inlaid in the soles of its feet.
Q 02Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia never to have been what?
Colonised by a European power
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.
Q 03Which of these countries meets Thailand only at sea, across the Gulf of Thailand?
Vietnam
Vietnam faces Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand, but Laos and Cambodia lie between the two on land, so their only shared boundary is at sea.
Q 04Thais call Bangkok 'Krung Thep', which means what?
City of angels
City of angels begins a ceremonial name of 168 letters, listed by Guinness as the world's longest place name; foreigners simply kept using Bangkok, the name of the older riverside settlement.
Q 05Rama I, who made Bangkok the capital in 1782, founded which dynasty that still reigns in Thailand?
Chakri
Chakri was the title of the general who took the throne as Rama I when King Taksin fell; he moved the court to Bangkok, and every king since, down to Vajiralongkorn, has come from his house.
Q 06Siam's 1932 revolution, led by the People's Party, brought an end to what?
Absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy ended on 24 June 1932 when a small group of army officers and civil servants seized Bangkok; King Prajadhipok accepted a constitution rather than fight, then abdicated in 1935.
Q 07Which Thai New Year festival, held in mid-April, is famous for its nationwide water fights?
Songkran
Songkran starts on 13 April and runs for three days; the street water fights grew out of gently pouring water over Buddha images and the hands of elders as a New Year blessing.
Q 08Muay Thai is nicknamed the 'Art of Eight Limbs' because it uses fists, elbows, knees and what else?
Shins
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.
Q 09Which Thai curry topped CNN's 2011 list of the world's 50 most delicious foods?
Massaman curry
Massaman curry was CNN's pick for number one, but when 35,000 readers then voted it slipped to tenth and Indonesia's rendang came first.
Q 10Which three aromatics are the signature base of tom yum soup?
Lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves
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.
Q 11Thailand's beloved dessert of glutinous rice, fresh fruit and coconut milk is made with which fruit?
Mango
Mango sticky rice (khao niao mamuang) pairs ripe mango with glutinous rice soaked in sweetened coconut milk; Thais eat it most in April and May, when the mango season peaks.
Q 12Which fruit is banned on much of Bangkok's public transport?
Durian
Durian's sulphurous smell can linger for days, so the spiky 'king of fruits' is kept off Bangkok's metro and out of many Southeast Asian hotels.
Q 13More than nine in ten Thais follow which branch of Buddhism?
Theravada
Theravada is the school Thailand shares with Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia; its teachings reached final written form in the Pali language in Sri Lanka, not in India where the Buddha taught.
Q 21Chiang Mai, whose name means 'new city', was founded in 1296 as the capital of which northern kingdom?
Lan Na
Lan Na's King Mangrai built Chiang Mai in 1296 after floods swamped Wiang Kum Kam, the capital he had built for himself nearby.
Q 22Phuket, Thailand's largest island, originally built its wealth on rubber and which mineral?
Tin
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.
Q 23Which Thai cove, seen in the film 'The Beach', was closed from 2018 to 2022?
Maya Bay
Maya Bay, on Ko Phi Phi Leh, was drawing up to 6,000 visitors a day and had lost most of its coral; within months of the closure, blacktip reef sharks were back in the shallows.
Q 14The traditional Thai greeting, a slight bow with palms pressed together, is called what?
The wai
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.
Q 15King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned for 70 years, was born in which country?
The United States
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.
Q 16When King Bhumibol died in 2016, who became the world's longest-reigning living monarch?
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II, on the throne since 1952, inherited the record when Bhumibol died on 13 October 2016; she went on to pass his 70 years and 126 days, reigning for 70 years and 214 days.
Q 17King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), who modernised Siam, is best remembered for abolishing what?
Slavery
Slavery was wound down over three decades so that owners and the freed could adjust: an 1874 law freed slaves born since his accession once they turned 21, and a final act ended it in 1905.
Q 18'The King and I' retells the story of Anna Leonowens, who taught which Siamese king's children?
Mongkut
Mongkut hired Anna Leonowens in 1862 to teach his wives and children; Thailand banned the Rodgers and Hammerstein film as disrespectful to him, and did the same to the 1999 remake.
Q 19Which Thai kingdom, a power for four centuries, was destroyed by a Burmese army in 1767 after a long siege?
Ayutthaya
Ayutthaya was burned in 1767 and its libraries and royal archives were lost; the general Taksin, who had slipped out of the besieged city, raised an army and drove the invaders out.
Q 20Which kingdom, established in 1238, is traditionally called 'the first Thai kingdom'?
Sukhothai
Sukhothai arose when Thai chiefs broke free of their overlords in the 13th century; Thais remember it as the cradle of their civilisation, and their alphabet is traditionally traced to its court.
Q 24Thailand's baht began as a unit of weight still used to sell what?
Gold
Gold in Thailand is priced by the baht, a weight of about 15 grams; the currency began as that weight of silver, cast as curled 'bullet coins' until flat coins replaced them in 1860.
Q 25What name do Thais give the three-wheeled motor taxis that weave through Bangkok traffic?
Tuk-tuk
Tuk-tuk taxis descend from small three-wheeled delivery trucks imported from Japan; after Japan phased the type out in the 1960s, Thai workshops kept building them and gave them their open-sided look.
Q 26Before 1917, Thailand's flag showed a white elephant on a field of which colour?
Red
Red was the whole field behind the white elephant; the story goes that King Vajiravudh saw one flying upside down during a flood and ordered a striped flag that could not be hung wrongly, adopted on 28 September 1917.
Q 27Which Thai temple on the west bank of the Chao Phraya is named after a Hindu god of the dawn?
Wat Arun
Wat Arun's central spire glitters with broken Chinese porcelain that reached Bangkok as ballast in trading ships; its name honours Aruna, charioteer of the Hindu sun god Surya.
Q 28Thailand's most sacred image, the Emerald Buddha, is actually carved from what?
Jade or jasper
Jade or jasper, not emerald, forms the 66-centimetre figure; by tradition it came to light in 1434, when lightning cracked a chedi in the north and stucco flaked from the statue hidden inside.
Q 29On the full-moon night of Loy Krathong, what do Thais do?
Float candle-lit baskets
Float candle-lit baskets, or krathong: set adrift on the full moon of the 12th lunar month, they are meant to carry bad luck away, and many are now made of bread so that fish can eat what is left.
Q 30Krating Daeng, the Thai energy drink that inspired Red Bull, is named after which animal?
The gaur
Chaleo Yoovidhya launched it in 1976 for rural labourers, and its logo shows two red gaurs charging at each other.