Fake new provinces going viral

On the Facebook page of the Department of Provincial Administration, earlier today a news announcement was posted intended to correct claims that five new provinces in the Northeast are about to be created. Apparently, yet another half-truth facebook posting has gone viral and shared by many without giving it any thought. I found at least one version of that post on Pantip with the list of the five province alleged to be created.

• Bua Yai split from Nakhon Ratchasima - จ.บัวใหญ่ แยกมาจากโคราช มี 8 อำเภอ อ.บัวใหญ่, อ.คง, อ.ประทาย, อ.โนนแดง, อ.บ้านเหลือม, อ.แก้งสนามนาง, อ.สีดา และ อ.บัวลาย
• Det Udom split from Ubon Ratchathani - จ.เดชอุดม แยกมาจากอุบลราชธานี มี 5 อำเภอ 2 กิ่งอำเภอ อ.เดชอุดม, อ.บุณฑริก, อ.นาจะหลวย, อ.น้ำยืน, อ.ทุ่งศรีอุดม,กิ่ง อ.น้ำขุ่น และกิ่ง อ.นาเยีย
• Katharalak split from Sisaket - จ.กันทรลักษ์ แยกออกมาจากศรีสะเกษ มี 6 อำเภอ 3 กิ่งอำเภอ อ.กันทรลักษ์, อ.ขุนหาญ, อ.เบญจลักษ์, อ.ศรีรัตนะ, อ.ไพรบึง, อ.โนนคูณ, กิ่ง อ.เขาพระวิหาร, กิ่ง อ.ศรีเมืองทอง และ กิ่ง อ.ทับทิมสยาม
• Chumphae split from Khon Kaen and Chaiyaphum - จ.ชุมแพ แยกมาจากขอนแก่น มี 6 อำเภอ อ.ชุมแพ, อ.ภูเวียง, อ.สีชมพู, อ.หนองนาคำ, อ.ภูผาม่าน และ อ.ภูเขียว ของ จ.ชัยภูมิ มาจัดตั้งเป็น จ.ชุมแพ ด้วย
• Nangrong split from Buriram - จ.นางรอง แยกมาจากบุรีรัมย์ มี 10 อำเภอ อ.นางรอง, อ.ชำนิ, อ.หนองหงส์, อ.บ้านกรวด, อ.เฉลิมพระเกียรติ, อ.โนนสุวรรณ, อ.ปะคำ, อ.หนองกี่, อ.ละหานทราย, และ อ.โนนดินแดง

Of these, the plan to create a province Bua Yai by splitting off parts of Nakhon Ratchasima is nothing new, that province even already has a Wikipedia article and I had mentioned it here before when that plan reemerged in 2013. Also, the province Chum Phae is not new, I first read about it in about 2005, but never heard any update on that since then, so it seems to be shelved and forgotten - probably its save to remove its mention in the Wikipedia article on Khon Kaen. Interestingly, according to this list it would even be composed of districts from two provinces, so far all newly created provinces were split off from just one province.

The other alleged provinces listed I have never heard about, so these might have been from some small local advocate groups but never made it into any official channels. For example, the Kantharalak province is supposed to contain the minor districts which don't exist yet, and in fact since 2007 any newly created districts are supposed to become full districts directly and omit the minor district level.

It would be much more interesting to know the current status of the one province actually about to be created - Mae Sot to be split off from Tak - or the proposal to create Fang province from the north of Chiang Mai which was to be considered by parliament several years ago.

Mueang of Isan

Another quote from Volker Grbowskys "Kleine Geschichte Thailands", in the chapter on the history of the Isan.

In dem halben Jahrhundert zwischen 1778 und 1826 stieg die Zahl der müang im Isan von 13 auf 35; für die Erschließung des Landesinneren erwiesen sich vor allem die Gründungen von Ròi Et (1775), Ubon Ratchathani (1791), Kalasin (1793) und Khòn Kaen (1797) als äußerst wichtig.

In the half century between 1778 and 1826 the number of mueang in the Isan increased from 13 to 35; most important for the development of the central area were the founding of Roi Et (1775), Ubon Ratchathani (1791), Kalasin (1793( and Khon Kaen (1797).

Now, I already wrote about the number of mueang in Isan before, quoting an article by the same author in the book "Regions and national integration in Thailand", in which the author gave the numbers for some selected years between 1826 and 1880.

• 1826 - 33
• 1840 - 54
• 1860 - 70
• 1880 - 100
• and no new Mueang after 1885
  

The number for 1826 contradicts with the new quote, but when rechecking the article I noticed that in there the above mentioned numbers for 1778 and 1826 were also given few paragraphs before - so in fact the article already contains both contradicting numbers.

And to my shame I have to admit that I still haven't worked through the scans I received last year, which would have allowed me to confirm which of the two numbers of 1826 is wrong.

Lao Mueang administration

The article Administrative reforms and national intergration: The case of the northeast by Paitoon Mikusol (ไพฑูรย์ มีกุศล) (in: Regions and national integration in Thailand, 1892-1992) gives an interesting view on the two different styles of administration in the mueang before around 1900 and the changes during the thesaphiban reforms.

In northeastern Siam, the mueang had two different systems of their internal administration, one in use for the Lao mueang and another one for those under more Siamese control. The Lao system was introduced by the first chao mueang (governor) of mueang Tung, the precursor of present-day Suwannaphum district in southern Roi Et province. Several mueang were grouped into one principality named hua mueang (หัวเมือง, lit. head town), either for group of mueang of a specific ethnic group, or for one major mueang with its subordinate mueang.

The internal administration of each mueang was headed by the chao mueang (เจ้าเมือง), which can be translated as governor or lord. This post, though it was to be appointed by the King in Bangkok, was in fact an hereditary post of the local nobility. Usually the chao mueang had the rank of a Phra (พระ) or Phraya (พระยา). The second post was the uparat (อุปราช), normally the son or younger brother of the chao mueang, and the heir when the chao mueang died. Two further posts are the ratchawong (ราชวงศ์) and ratchabut (ราชบุตร), with the whole group of four posts named aya si (อาญาสี่). All three lower posts were appointed from the court in Bangkok, and were not under control of the chao mueang. Also the capital punishment was not in the authority of the chao mueang, but in many other fields he was quite independent in his administrative decisions.

This system ceased to exist with the thesaphiban reforms during which the local nobility was replaced by paid officials sent from the capital. At least this was the case in those parts which stayed under Siamese rule, what happened in the areas east of the Mekong which were included into French Indochina I have no idea.

The Siamese style of mueang administration will be the topic of a later post.

Mueang of Isan

I knew before that there were more of the Mueang than those which became the modern-day provinces, yet most of these were subordinate of more important and powerful Mueang. For several of the districts I read in the history that they were such subordinate Mueang in the past. But I not knew the numbers of these, as the only list of Muang I have found so far seems only to include those directly subordinate to Bangkok.

But at least for the northeast (Isan) I have now found the numbers, in the paper The Isan up to its integration into the Siamese state (in: Regions and National Integration in Thailand, 1892-1992) by Volker Grabowsky the author cites a Thai lnaguage source, according to which the numbers were as follows.

• 1826 - 33
• 1840 - 54
• 1860 - 70
• 1880 - 100
• and no new Mueang after 1885
  

To compare, there are now 19 provinces with 321 districts, thus by far more Mueang than provinces, but on the other side by far not all of the districts can claim their history to go back to such an old entity.

The Thai source is a book titled "Prawattisat isan" (ประวัติศาสตร์อีสาน, History of Isan) by Toem Waphikphotcanakit (เติม วิภาคย์พจนกิจ) published in 1970. I though it'd take long till I could get my hand on this book, let alone be able to read it to into the base data for the above numbers. But then the fact I posted my Thailand books on LibraryThing helped. This had inspired Jakkrits from the Ethnowater blog to do the same. And when I just checked through his library I noticed that he has exactly that book in his collection, and he send me a scan of the relevant pages. Now I only need to find the time to work through that list.

Etymology of the word Isan

In a footnote to the paper The Isan up to its integration into the Siamese state (in: Regions and National Integration in Thailand, 1892-1992) by Volker Grabowsky the author gives the etymology and history of the term Isan (อีสาน) for the northeastern part of Thailand.

"Isan" derives from the Pāli word for "northeast". The term "Isan" has been introduced by the Siamese government in 1900 to replace the old ethnic name for the administrative circle Monthon Lao Khao (capital: Ubon Ratchathani). Twelve years later, in 1912, Monthon Isan was divided up into the circles (monthon) of Roi-et and Ubon Ratchathani. At that time the term "Isan" was being transformed from a narrow administrative designation to a more general geographic term. Since c.1922 the so-called Northeastern region (phak isan) became a widely accepted designation for the whole of the Khorat plateau, comprising the territories of the former monthon of Isan (Roi-et, Ubon Ratchathani), Udon and Khorat. [...]

In the map to the right I have marked the administrative circles (monthon, มณฑล) of the northeast in their layout of 1915. The two circles which made up the circle Isan until 1912 are the blue and pink to the southeast, encircled in red.

The split of the circle was announced in the Royal Gazette in April 1912, with Isan then still spelled อิสาน with a short I (instead of the long I it has today). And that spelling is consistent in all the announcements of that time, so the word Isan really changed spelling.

An interesting further reading is a blog posting on Isan’s Holy Men and Holy Waters.

Muban website

While many of the municipalities and Tambon administrative organizations have websites already, some even with an English section, I just came across the first fully bilingual website of a village. What is even more surprising is the fact that this village is located in the agricultural and rather poor Northeast region (Isan), and apparently the website was done by some villages themselves, even the English part. And the many photos on the site give a good image of the rural life.

The village is Ban Duan Noi (บ้านดวนน้อย), village 4 of Mueang Khaen subdistrict, Rasi Salai district, Sisaket province. It is located 12 kilometer from the district center and 51 from the province center. They included the satellite image of their village in Google Maps, but the street map of that area does not include any village names.

The total area of the village is about 3500 rai (ไร่) or 5.6 km². 52 rai is the settled area, 79 rai is public land, and the majority of 3369 rai is farm land. The village has a total of 414 citizen, 211 men and 203 women, living in 79 households. Of these, 72 households do farming, 60 have lifestock, and 7 are working as employees. 75 of the households have an annual income of more than 20,000 Baht. The village has one temple, but no school.

Also interesting is the history. The village dates back to the year 1852. Kamtha together with 7 other families from the village Ban Don Mai Ngam (Nong Mi subdistrict) started the new settlement 15 kilometers from their former village. At first they named it Ban Kao (บ้านเก่า), but after many of the people died of Malaria the name was seen as having a bad karma and thus changed it to Ban Duan Noi.

Even the complete list of village headmen is given on the website.

• Khamtha Phaha (นายคำตา พาหา)
• Boonma Phaha (นายบุญมา พาหา
• Kerd Phansi (นายเกิด พันธ์ศรี)
• Thongsa Phaha (นายทองสา พาหา)
• Thamma Amnuay (นายทำมา อำนวย)
• Khun Kaewpanya (นายคูณ แก้วปัญญา)

District names in Isan in the 1910s

In several Isan provinces the districts were named in a common scheme, until they were renamed in 1913. There were districts named Udon (อุดร), Pachin (ปจิม), Thaksin (ทักษิณ) and Uthai (อุไทย), then followed by the name of the province. Only in case of Ubon Ratchathani the second part of the district name was just the short "Ubon" or Yasothon, which was part of Ubon Ratchathani then. These scheme was at least used in the provinces Sisaket, Ubon Ratchathani, Surin, Roi Et, Maha Sarakham and Kalasin.