Fun with flags

On September 28th the Thai flag celebrated its centennial, which coincides with the timing of the latest Royal Gazette announcement on the Thai flag published yesterday, clarifying the Thai flag act of 1979 with the exact definition of the colors of the flag in the CIELAB color space.

Colour	L*	a*	b*	ΔE
Red	36.4	55.47	25.42	Not exceeding 1.5
White	96.61	-0.15	-1.48	Not exceeding 1.5
Blue	18.63	7.89	-19.45	Not exceeding 1.5

And it seems I am not the only one who is constantly monitoring the Royal Gazette announcements, as the Wikipedia article on the Flag of Thailand was already updated yesterday accordingly by Paul012.

And since the Wikipedia article also linked an unofficial translation of the flag act, its notable that this act does not mention anything about the flags for each province, the obscure flags I never saw anywhere but seem to exist - yet many other flags are defined in the act, even obscure one like the Boy Scout provincial flags.

Bueng Kan emblem and flag?

Though I haven't yet found anything official on the province emblem yet, to my surprise a Youtube video showed up which at the beginning shows both a flag and an emblem for the new province.


The emblem, which is also the central element of the flag, shows Phu Tok hill surrounded by forests and with a lake in front - exactly the elements which were listed in the document I found recently. The flag shows this round emblem in middle, and three horizontal stripes purple-white-purple. No idea if the colors have any special meaning - if the date of creation of the province were used it should have featured green stripes, as March 23rd was a Wednesday and therefore had the color green.

Province flags

I have written before about the flags for the Thai provinces, and how strange it is that in a country where flags are flown almost everywhere that these flags are never seen in public - only the national flag, the Buddhist wheel flag and the flags of HM the King or the Queen are seen everywhere. One reason is probably the lack of any regional identity, at least any officially endorsed one.

When I was looking for data on the mayor of Surat Thani, Mrs. Sombun Suwannabut (สมบูรณ์ สุวรรณบุตร), to my surprise within the Google Image search result was one photo I which I could recognize the province flag of Surat Thani.

The photo shows the mayor on the right side holding a flag of the Tourism Authority (TAT), and deputy province governor Somsak Changtrakun (สมศักดิ์ จังตระกูล) holding the province flag on the left side. The photo was taken at the opening ceremony of a car rally, which started at the city pillar shrine of Surat Thani, launched on July 23 2010 in celebration of the 95th anniversary of the province. Well, actually in 1915 was only the rename of the province to Surat Thani, but good enough for celebrating an easy to remember anniversary.

Anyway, from the fact that I have never seen any such provincial flag in real, and in that photo is used by the deputy province governor lets me suspect that these flags are only used by the governor and his deputies. And it looks like I have to refine my design of the Surat Thani flag, as in the photo the chedi is placed on a circular white area, it has the same cloud decorations around as on the provincial seal, and the name of the province is written below it. Don't know what and if there is a completely defined official design.

Trat remembrance day

Tomorrow is the annual Trat remembrance day (วันตราดรำลึก), as on March 23 1906 the province Trat was returned to Thai suzerainty after being held captive by the French since 1904. The most remarkable thing about this celebration is that on this day the whole province uses the old flag with the white elephant on a red cloth. This flag was abandoned in 1916, allegedly because the king saw this flag hanging upside down after a flood, and then changed the national flag into a symmetrical one which cannot be hung wrongly. At first the middle bar was red as well, after one year it got the blue color it still has today.

I have found a collection of photos from the Trat day 2007 which show perfectly well that on this day the old flag is much more present than the current national flag. The above illustration is taken from Le Petit Journal of February 26 1905 and shows the occupation of Trat by the French. So instead of the reraising of the elephant flag in 1906 it actually shows the earlier lowering. Trat was given to the French in 1904 in exchange with Chanthaburi, which they occupied in the Paknam crisis of 1893. And though Trat celebrates March 23, for nationalists it would be more a day of mourning, as with the contract which returned Trat the northwestern provinces of Cambodia had to be seized to French Indochina.

Monthon Pattani Scout Flag

15 of the Monthon had a flag of the regional troop of the scouts, which are interesting since they first use symbols which later got used in the provincial seals. As the first of these flags I now feature the one of Monthon Pattani, the administrative entity which covered the area of the three southernmost muslim provinces - though at that times it still were four provinces: Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and Saiburi.

Quoting the description of this flag from the book ธงไทย เล่ม ๑ (Thai flags volume 1)

พื้นธงสีเขียวใบไม้ ขอบสีเหลือง กลางธงมีรูปปืนนางพญาตานี ซึ่งเป็นปืนที่พระยาตานีนำมาถวายโดยความจงรักภักดีต่อพระมหากษัตริย์ในราชวงศ์จักรี ทั้งนี้เพื่อให้ลูกเสือในมณฑลนั้นได้ระลึกถึงความจงรักภักดีของพระยาตานีไว้เป็นตัวอย่างอยู่เสมอ พระบาทสมเด็จพระมงกุฎเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัวได้พระราชทานเมื่อวันที่ ๑๓ มิถุนายน พ.ศ. ๒๔๕๘ ในคราวเสด็จพระราชดำเนินประพาสปักษ์ใต้

The ground of the flag is leaf green, the border yellow. In the middle is a picture of the cannon Phaya Tani, which is the cannon the ruler of Tani presented for show allegiance with the great King of the Chakri dynasty. Thus the scouts of this monthon can keep the memory of the loyalty the ruler of Tani as a constant example. King Rama VI (Vajiravudh) give on January 13 1916 on occasion of a royal journey to southern Thailand.

The emblems of the provinces were announced in the Royal Gazette in in 2004, though this wasn't on the original adoption of these emblems. Nevertheless, the short description of the Pattani emblem reads as follows.

รูปปืนใหญ่ หมายถึง ปืนพญาตาณี ที่มีขนาดใหญ่ที่ศุค (ขนาดยาว 3 วา ศอกคืบสองนิ้วครึ่ง กระสุน 11 นิ้ว) ซึ่งเป็นปืนใหญ่ กระบอกสำคัญที่ใช้ป้องกันเมืองปัตตานีตลอดมา ชาวเมืองจึงถือว่าเป็นคู่บ้านคู่เมืองมาแต่สมัยโบราณ

The picture of the cannon is Phaya Thani, which is the largest cannon (length of 3 wa, volume 1 palm leaf 2 and a half inch, bullet 11 inch). It is an important cannon used to protect Pattani long time. The citizen thus consider it as respectable from old times.

The cannon is a very important item from the history of Pattani. Phaya Tani is the Thai name, locally it is however know as Seri Pattani. It was cast in the early 17th century, and in 1785 it came to Bangkok as booty after Pattani was put under Thai suzerainty again. It is now located in front of the Defense Ministry, close to the Grand Palace. I had taken that photo some years ago, however I am not fully sure it actually depicts this cannon or its Thai copy Narai Sanghan - I haven't come to that part of the town for quite some time to update my photo. By the way, now the cannons no longer point towards the Grand Palace, they were turned to point north and south in 2004.

A bit strange - the first source spells the cannon as พญาตานี, while the second one พญาตาณี - yet both spelling have the same pronunciation.

Provincial badges of Thai Scouts

On the website ThaiScouting, one of the many high-quality websites made by or under supervision of Richard Barrow at the Sriwittayapaknam School in Samut Prakan, it has two pages which depict badges worn at the back of the scarfs of the scouts. Every province has its own badge (ตราผ้าผูกคอลูกเสือประจำจังหวัด), which is most cases uses the same symbol which is also present in the provincial seal. For example the one of Surat Thani shows the chedi of Wat Phra Borom That, which is also the central symbol of the provincial emblem.

The first page displays the badges of the central, south and western provinces, the second one those of the north, northeast and eastern province. Also notice that there are a total of 12 groups of badges, making up yet another regional subdivision.

There are a few cases where the badge shows a different symbol than the provincial seal - hopefully I catched them all. While for the seals I know the explanation of each symbol (thanks to yet another website of the Paknam school), I have no idea about the alternative symbols yet.

• Phuket - the seal shows the two heroines Thao Thep Kasattri and Thao Sri Sunthon, who saved the island at a Burmese invasion in 1785. The badge however shows a hill which emits light at the top.
• Narathiwat - the seal shows a boat with a white elephant on the sail, commemorating a white elephant once caught in province. The badge shows a forest instead.
• Ratchaburi - the seal shows royal shoes, the badge shows a hill surrounded by a snake.
• Uthai Thani - the seal shows a pavilion at Wat Khao Sakaekrang, the badge a landscape.
  

There were also historical flags for each regional troop. According to Flags Of The World, there was one regional troop in each Monthon, and even more interesting, in many cases the current seals of the central provinces of each Monthon followed the symbol previously used on the regional scout troop flag. For example the one of Monthon Nakhon Si Thammarat depicted shows the conch shell, which is now the symbol on the seal of Songkhla. 1896/97 the Monthon administration was located in Songkhla. To bad I cannot read enough Thai yet, as I own a book on Thai flags which also features these flags, but I cannot check if the above is confirmed by the author. But I'll investigate further and will write about it again when I have more.

Flags of the provinces

Every province has a seal (ตราประจำจังหวัด), a circular graphic with some typical things of the province depicted. These are relatively often seen in Thailand, for example on the websites of the provinces, or also on the big street signs welcoming the drivers when entering a province. However I was quite surprised when I first saw the Flags of the World website talking about flags of the provinces (ธงประจำจังหวัด). These flags usually feature the same provincial symbol as depicted the seal, together with some colors which have some connection with the province. Depicted is the flag of Surat Thani province.

In Thailand almost every public place is cluttered with either the Thai national flag, a flag with the symbol of the King, or around temples a flag with the Buddhist wheel. But I never ever saw any of these provincial flags, not even at the province hall. Also the book "Thong Thai Laem 1" by Chawingam Macharoen I bought once does not mention them, just many other flags used in Thailand. The only official place I have seen these flags so far are PDF files with province profiles from the Ministry of Interior. But the flags in those are of so low resolution it hardly possible to make out the actual contents. The best renderings available on the web were at vexilla-mundi.com, however right now the section on the Thai provinces is "under construction". So this flag of Surat Thani I tried to create to match those low-resolution pictures, it is probably not fully correct with its aspect ratio, the colors or the size of that chedi in Chaiya in relation to the whole flag.