Wednesday, August 26, 2009

TAO 1958 till 1971

When I wrote on the abolishing of the TAO in 1972, I said that I did not succeed to match all the entities to their modern-day equivalent. But now I worked through the list again, and it turns out there were only three which I did not find directly, and only one was really a bit more difficult. All of these are from the 1958 announcement:
  • Entry 10: พรมณี in Mueang Nakhon Nayok district, Nakhon Nayok. Seems like the spelling has changed, since the subdistrict is now named พรหมณี (Phrommani), or it was a misspelling in the announcement, forgetting the Ho Hieb (ห) which only changes the tone of the second syllable.
  • Entry 49: หนองโพธิ์ (Nong Pho), Photharam district, Ratchaburi province, is now spelled หนองโพ - the anyway silent last syllable no longer written.
  • Entry 28: ไก้จ้น (Kai Chan), Tha Ruea district, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province. I now could find that this is in fact the subdistrict Tha Luang (ท่าหลวง). I even already had processed the announcement which contains the rename, but in that the subdistrict is spelled ไก่จ้น, a different tone for the first syllable. But since it is a different spelling it did not show in the search. I have no idea if the spelling was changed as well between 1958 and 1961, or which one of the the two announcements has the spelling mistake.
One more strange things - the document Decentralization and changing local politics in Thailand states
Other types of state-led local administrative bodies such as 71 PAO, 585 sanitary districts and 59 units of TAO during this period (the number is as of early 1970s).
But, there were 59 entities created in 1958, and one more (Ban Chiang, Nong Han district, Udon Thani province) in 1966, so it would be 60. Don't know which number I should believe, if there's anything not published (or not yet found) in the Gazette I am missing here.

Anyway, a small statistics of the distribution of these TAO show that only some provinces had TAO created then. Sorted by number these are Ayutthaya (11), Surat Thani, Ratchaburi, Nakhon Si Thammarat (6), Nakhon Sawan (5), Chachoengsao, Chiang Rai (including Phayao) (4), Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Nazok (3), Sakon Nakhon, Lampang, Phuket, Phichit (2) and Yala, Phetchabun, Khon Kaen and Udon Thani with one. Thus by region it is 24 in central Thailand, 15 in the south, 14 in the north and only 7 in the north-east.

Of these 60 TAO, 5 are now municipalities after being recreated as TAOs in the 1990s:
  • Ratsada (รัษฎา), Mueang Phuket, Phuket
  • Pla Lo (ปลาโหล), Waritchaphum, Sakon Nakhon
  • Thung Luang (ทุ่งหลวง), Pak Tho, Ratchaburi
  • Chun (จุน), Chun, Phayao (then Chiang Rai)
  • Bang Wua (บางวัว), Bang Pakong, Chachoengsao
Another eight were not recreated in the 1990s, probably due to a sanitary district or municipality already covering most or all of the subdistrict.
  • Maret (มะเร็ต), Ko Samui, Surat Thani
  • Lom Raet (ล้อมแรด), Thoen, Lampang
  • Pho Hak (โพหัก), Bang Phae, Ratchaburi
  • Don Tako (ดอนตะโก), Mueang Ratchaburi, Ratchaburi
  • Tha Chang (ท่าช้าง), Nakhon Luang, Ayutthaya
  • Bang Pramung (บางประมุง), Krok Phra, Nakhon Sawan
  • Kao Liao (เก้าเลี้ยว), Kao Liao, Nakhon Sawan
  • Chan Chawa (จันจว้า), Mae Chan, Chiang Rai

1 comment:

Rikker said...

The ห in พรหม is entirely silent; it doesn't affect the pronunciation at all. It's only inserted to preserve the original spelling of the Pali/Sanskrit word brahma.

Note the pronunciation given in RID:
พรหม [พฺรม]
พรหม- [พฺรมมะ]

So the pronunciation of พรหมณี and พรมนี would be identical: [พฺรมมะนี].

Either scenarios is possible, I think. Many simplified spellings were later "corrected" to reflect their Indic etymology, but spelling errors are certainly not uncommon.

ไก่จ้น (Kai Chon, not Kai Chan) seems to be correct, since there is a temple called วัดไก่จ้น, and its Wikipedia page mentions a sima inscription that states that King Rama V officially recognized the temple called วัดบ้านไก่จ้น in 1888. (The word บ้าน was later dropped from the temple name.)

So ไก้จ้น would seem to be an error, except that there are a number of references to "วัดไก้จ้น" on Google. Still, though, ไก่ seems more likely given the Wikipedia article and history.