180 Khwaeng in Bangkok

It seems the number of subdistricts (Khwaeng, แขวง) in Bangkok has just or will very soon be increased from 169 to 180. The Thai Wikipedia Potapt, who is very active in keeping the articles on the subdivisions up-to-date in the Thai Wikipedia, has just updated all the relevant articles both in the Thai and in the English Wikipedia. I haven't yet seen any announcement in the Royal Gazette, but as he is always quite conservative in adding things, I trust he has very good sources that these changes are indeed forthcoming - but will wait till I have the official announcement to update Wikidata and the German Wikipedia then.

The new subdistricts will end the oddity of districts with just a single subdistrict. Its sad that the latest list of the ccaatt codes was just published, so it will be a guessing game which numbers are to be assigned to the new districts.

• Phra Khanong district: Bang Chak subdistrict split to create Phra Khanong Tai subdistrict (แขวงพระโขนงใต้). District will have 2 subdistricts now, new subdistrict probably receiving the code 100910 as the next free code.
• Phaya Thai district: Sam Sen Nai subdistrict split to create Phaya Thai subdistrict (แขวงพญาไท). District will have 2 subdistricts now, new subdistrict probably receiving the code 101406. The original subdistricts having the name Phaya Thai in their name were split off to Ratchathewi district in 1989.
• Din Daeng district: Din Daeng subdistrict split to create Ratchadaphisek subdistrict (แขวงรัชดาภิเษก). District will have 2 subdistricts now, new subdistrict probably receiving the code 102602.
• Suan Luang district: Suan Luang subdistrict split to create On Nut and Phatthanakan subdistricts (แขวงอ่อนนุช, แขวงพัฒนาการ). District will have 3 subdistricts now.
• Saphan Sung district: Saphan Sung subdistrict split to create Rat Phatthana and Thap Chang subdistricts (แขวงราษฎร์พัฒนา, แขวงทับช้าง). District will have 3 subdistricts now.
• Bang Na district: Bang Na subdistrict split into two new subdistrict named Bang Na Nuea (แขวงบางนาเหนือ) and Bang Na Tai (แขวงบางนาใต้). It remains to be seen if this will be done by abolishing the previous subdistrict and creating two new subdistricts, or by renaming it and creating one new ones.
• Bang Bon district: Bang Bon subdistrict split into four new subdistrict named Bang Bon Nuea (แขวงบางบอนเหนือ), Bang Bon Tai (แขวงบางบอนใต้), Khlong Bang Phran (แขวคลองบางพราน) and Khlong Bang Bon (แขวงคลองบางบอน). It remains to be seen if this will be done by abolishing the previous subdistrict and creating four new ones, or by renaming it and creating three new ones.

Khwaeng in Pattaya and Hat Yai?

So far I only knew about two cities which have an additional subdivision into subdistricts (Khwaeng, แขวง) additional to the boroughs (chumchon, ชุมชน) - Chiang Mai and Nonthaburi, though only for Chiang Mai I have found a list of all the municipal subdivisions on their website.

As I monitor changes to the Wikipedia page "Administrative divisions of Thailand" making sure nobody removes the link to this blog (just kidding), I noticed a change last week suggesting that Pattaya and Hat Yai also have this additional subdivision. The user Marut28 who did this change in past had done several good edits, especially related to Surat Thani Province and Chaiya, thus I trust his edit to be correct. The bad thing - this user never ever replied to any questions posted on his talk page, so trying to ask him for a reference probably won't give me any answer this time either. I tried to look at the websites of both Pattaya and Hat Yai, but failed to find any page listing their subdivisions.

Khwaeng of Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is one of the few municipalities which have an additional subdivision into subdistricts (Khwaeng, แขวง). Though I don't know yet the history or actual tasks of these subdistricts, and their relation to the boroughs (Chumchon), I have now found them actually mentioned in the Royal Gazette in an publication where I did not expect them. In 2003, the constituencies for the municipal council were defined and published in the Royal Gazette.

Now, as Chiang Mai is a city municipality (Thesaban Nakhon), the municipal council has 24 members, elected in four constituencies with 6 councilors each. These four constituencies are defined as follows

• Constituency 1: แขวงนครพิงค์ (Khwaeng Nakhon Ping)
• Constituency 2: แขวงกาวิละ (Khwaeng Kawila)
• Constituency 3: แขวงเม็งราย (Khwaeng Mengrai)
• Constituency 4> แขวงศรีวิชัย (Kwaeng Siwichai)

Thus the constituencies directly coincide with the subdistricts. Yet for Nonthaburi, the other municipality which I know to have Khwaeng, the constituencies are not defined like this. Whether the subdistricts for Chiang Mai came first and had similar population numbers and could thus be used as constituencies later on, or were created simultaneously with the constituencies i an open question. I haven't been able to find any announcements in the Royal Gazette on the creation of these subdistricts, and even the website of Chiang Mai does not give much detail on them either.

Geocodes for new Bangkok subdistricts

Last week the geocode list from the Department of Provincial Administration was updated to include the nine new subdistricts created in Bangkok in July. The new codes are as follows

102704	นวมินทร์	Nawamin
102705	นวลจันทร์	Nuan Chan
102902	วงศ์สว่าง	Wong Sawang
103604	ดอนเมือง	Don Mueang
103605	สนามบิน	Sanam Bin
104302	รามอินทรา	Ram Intra
104502	สะพานสอง	Saphan Song
104503	คลองเจ้าคุณสิงห์	Khlong Chai Khun Sing
104504	พลับพลา	Phlapphla

In those districts where only one new subdistrict was created the new code was of course evident, but funnily also for the other districts they followed the same order which they were originally entered on the Thai Wikipedia.

However, only these subdistrict codes were added - the new codes which will be necessary with the forthcoming creation of Galyani Vadhana district are not yet included. Don't know if they wait till the district is actually created, or it means that the creation will still take some more time.

Subdistrict area change in Bang Khae, Bangkok

Among the creations of new subdistricts in Bangkok was one announcement which only changed the outline of the subdistricts without splitting off a new one. In Bang Khae district (บางแค) the boundaries of the three subdistricts were adjusted. The (Gazette) announcement includes a map with the new boundaries, and at the creation of Bang Khae in 1997 the subdistricts boundaries were also defined and displayed on a map (Gazette), so it is possible to compare the two maps and see the changes. I have done an approximate map with Google Maps - whereas the new boundaries are easy as the follow the main roads Phetkasem and Kanchanaphisek and the Khlong Bang Waek, the old boundary of Lak Song subdistrict was not that easy to identify and therefore my map is probably not fully accurate.

The change of boundaries is actually the change of outline of this subdistrict Lak Song, which previously covered the southwestern corner of Bang Khae. The area north of Phetkasem came to Bang Khae Nuea, whereas the area west of Kanchanaphisek road previously belonging to Bang Khae came to Lak Song.


View Khwaeng Bang Khae 2009 in a larger map
As that 1997 map is the oldest I don't know if or how the outline of the subdistricts was changed at that time, the Wikipedia article suggests there were changes at that time as well.

New Bangkok subdistricts officially gazettered

Published on Monday were the announcements to create the new subdistricts in Bangkok, one announcement per district. Each of the announcement includes the description of the boundaries, as well as a map showing them.

• Wang Thonglang district creating the new subdistricts Saphan Song (แขวงสะพานสอง), Khlong Chao Khun Sing (แขวงคลองเจ้าคุณสิงห์) and Phlapphla (แขวงพลับพลา) - Gazette
• Don Mueang district creating the new subdistrict Sanam Bin (แขวงสนามบิน) and Don Mueang (แขวงดอนเมือง) - Gazette
• Bueng Kum district creating the subdistricts Nuamin (แขวงนวมินทร์) and Nuan Chan (แขวงนวลจันทร์) - Gazette
• Bang Sue districts creating the subdistrict Wong Sawang (แขวงวงศ์สว่าง) - Gazette
• Khan Na Yao district creating the subdistrict Ram Intra (แขวงรามอินทรา) - Gazette

Additionally, in Bang Khae district (บางแค) the boundaries of the subdistricts were adjusted. (Gazette) I may write up a bit more details on this one later.

New subdistricts in Bangkok

Only through monitoring the edits on Wikipedia I became aware of the fact that in Bangkok the city administration created new subdistricts (Khwaeng, แขวง). Five subdistricts, each the sole subdistrict in the corresponding district, were split, effective August 3, raising the number of subdistricts from 160 to 169.

• Wang Thonglang (แขวงวังทองหลาง), Wang Thonglang district split off the new subdistricts Saphan Song (แขวงสะพานสอง), Khlong Chao Khun Sing (แขวงคลองเจ้าคุณสิงห์) and Phlapphla (แขวงพลับพลา)
• Don Mueang (แขวงดอนเมือง), Don Mueang district, split off the new subdistrict Sanam Bin (แขวงสนามบิน)
• Bueng Kum (แขวงบึงกุ่ม), Bueng Kum district split off the subdistricts Nuamin (แขวงนวมินทร์) and Nuan Chan (แขวงนวลจันทร์)
• Bang Sue (แขวงบางซื่อ), Bang Sue districts split off the subdistrict Wong Sawang (แขวงวงศ์สว่าง)
• Khan Na Yao (แขวงคันนายาว), Khan Na Yao district split off the subdistrict Ram Intra (แขวงรามอินทรา)

I tried to find some more background on these new subdistricts, but wasn't able to find much. Prachachat gives the approximate boundaries of the new subdistricts, whereas from a Thai blog posting I could extract the date of being effective to be August 3. And finally, the report in Naewna suggest that till next year all of the districts with a single subdistrict will have new subdistricts., which means the seven districts Phra Khanong, Phaya Thai, Din Daeng, Suan Luang, Saphan Sung, Bang Na, Bang Bon.

The population of Bangkok's subdistricts varies greatly, the lowest is 2392 (Chana Songkhram, Phra Nakhon), and the median value is about 35000. Yet 10 out of the 160 subdistricts have even more than 100,000 citizen.

Population	Khwaeng	Khet
164570	Si Kan	Don Mueang
147466	Khlong Kum	Bueng Kum
145671	Bang Sue	Bang Sue
139322	Din Daeng	Din Daeng
116067	Suan Luang	Suan Luang
115685	Wang Thonglang	Wang Thonglang
102963	Bang Bon	Thawi Watthana
102122	Samae Dam	Bang Khun Thian
100474	Bang Na	Bang Na
100377	Anusaori	Bang Khen

In italics are those subdistricts already split now.

Now I wait for the announcement in the Royal Gazette, the last ones were announced in December 2003, just three days after the creation became effective. And also for the geocodes for those cases where it has more than one new subdistrict in one district, so far the CCAATT list from DOPA has not been updated.

Latest subdistricts of Bangkok

I mentioned earlier that the last subdistrict (tambon) created was in 1997. But to clarify it a bit, in fact there have been new subdistricts created after 1997, but these were not Tambon, but Khwaeng (แขวง), which are a different administrative entity unique to the city of Bangkok.

While both Khwaeng and Tambon are the third level territorial subdivision, the difference between the two is at first that Tambon are subordinate of the Ministry of the Interior, while the Khwaeng are under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). I still have to find the details on how the Khwaeng are actually administrated, the Wikipedia article on this is still very incomplete and needs expansion.

Anyway, there have been two announcements on the creation of new subdistricts after 1997, both issued on December 1 2003.

• In Chatuchak district (เขตจตุจักร) four subdistrict got created - before this change the district consisted of the single subdistrict Lat Yao (แขวงลาดยาว). The corresponding announcement was in Royal Gazette volume 120, issue พิเศษ 138 ง, pages 28 to 34.
• In Thonburi district (เขตธนบุรี) the two new subdistrict Samre (แขวงสำเหร่) and Dao Khanong (แขวงดาวคะนอง) got created, increasing the number of subdistricts from 5 to 7. The corresponding announcement was in Royal Gazette volume 120, issue พิเศษ 138 ง, pages 35 to 42.

Town subdivisions

Something I haven't found any information about in English are the subdivisions of the municipalities (thesaban). It seems like every municipality is subdivided into entities named chumchon (ชุมชน), which translates to "communities". Big cities have up to 100 of these, while the small thesaban tambon usually only have just one or two. These entities are apparently at a similar level as the villages (muban). Sadly the nearly complete lists of these (and the muban) in excel sheets I found at oncb.go.th are no longer accessible, so there seems to be no online resource listing them anymore. Any information on the tasks, history and so on of these is very welcome.

At least Chiang Mai has another subdivision above the communities - a map at the city website shows four "wards" (khwaeng, แขวง). Oddly the geocode list at DOPA lists only three of the four, but also list a single ward for Nonthaburi. These are probably not the same kind of entity as the subdistricts in Bangkok, which are also named kwaeng. Again I have no ideas on the function of those.