Seals of the municipalities

Not only the provinces have emblems or seals (In Thai ตราสัญญลักษณ์), each of the municipality (thesaban) have one as well, and even the Tambon administrative organizations (TAO) each have one. As the TAO were nearly all created 1996-1999, and also in 1999 the sanitary districts became municipalities, a great number of these emblems had been created recently. To see these emblems in the everyday life one has to know where to look. Quite obviously they are displayed at the administrative office, at least if they had enough money for a representative building or sign. Maybe the most common place to see them however are the garbage bins - garbage collection is one of the tasks of the municipality and TAO. To show on this blog I even made a photo of such a garbage bin. A much more beautiful place for the emblem was found by municipality Don Sak, they placed it on top of their street signs. And of course those municipalities/TAO which have a website show their logo their as well.

That emblem from Don Sak also serves as a good example of the contents of these emblems. As they describe on their website, the main element is the Chedi of Khao Suwan Pradit (วัดเขาสุวรรณประดิษฐ์), the main temple of the whole district. It's of course no coincidence I chose the street named after (and leading towards) the temple for this photo. Another element in the logo is a ship, as the ferry pier to Ko Samui is also located within the town area. The emblems usually show some special buildings or natural places found within the area of the entity, or like the elephant in the one from Chang Sai something related to the etymology of the place. Sadly only few of the municipalities actually add the explanation of their logo on their website, so for many I could only guess what is displayed and why.

I wonder if anyone in Thailand has collected these emblems in a systematic way yet? Here in Europe heraldry has a long history, and have quite a lot of books on this topic, some of it collecting and explaining all the coat of arms of administrative entities for a specific area. If someone know anything like this for the Thai emblems please tell me about it, all I have is one book on the Thai flags (ธงไทย เล่ม ๑ - Thong Thai Volume 1, ever had the second volume?), and the citation for a book on the provincial seals I have no idea yet how to get my personal copy (ตราประจำจังหวัด by the Fine Arts Department, 1999).

Municipal decisions from February 29 2008

Meeting number 17 from February 29 2008 with the upgrade of 4 TAO to subdistrict municipalities.

• Phra Song (เทศบาลตำบลพระซอง), Na Kae district, Nakhon Phanom province, effective July 19 2008. The TAO was created in 1996, covers 33 km², 17 villages and 7,774 citizen.
• Khok Samran (เทศบาลตำบลโคกสำราญ), Ban Haet district, Khon Kaen province, effective July 19 2008. The TAO was created in 1996, covers 70.63 km², 16 villages and 8,930 citizen.
• Tha Chang Khlong (เทศบาลตำบลท่าช้างคล้อง), Pha Khao district, Loei province, effective May 1 2008. The TAO was created in 1996, covers 87 km², 14 villages and 10,618 citizen.
• Fao Rai (เทศบาลตำบลเฝ้าไร่), Fao Rai district, Nong Khai province, effective July 18 2008. The TAO was created in 1996, covers 62 km², 17 villages and 11,067 citizen.

Stamps with the provincial seals, 2nd series

The second series of stamps with provincial seals have been issued on April 2. Same as with the first series, on the My Philately World blog it has the first day covers (Part 1 and part 2), and also the whole sheet. The Thai post details on the sheet is still not existing, they whole new stamp section of their website hasn't been updated for quite some time.

As you can see below, I have this sheet now myself as well - I bought it when I was in Bangkok, and also bought the first series sheets. I only don't know where to get the first day covers, the Bangkok Noi post office did not have them.

Elections for the province administration organization

Last Sunday and again on next Saturday or Sunday several of the province held elections for the provincial administration organizations (PAO) - both the members as well as the chairman. The PAO is a kind of a provincial parliament, but it has only very limited authorities and thus is not much well-known, most the administrative tasks within the provinces reside with the central authority, by the various local officers sent from the respective ministries or departments in Bangkok. It's similar with the chairman of the PAO, the real leader of the province is the provincial governor sent from the Ministry of the Interior. I still have to research more details on the PAO, like its tasks or history, so the entity will be a topic here again for sure.

Surat Thani was among the 41 provinces who went to vote last Sunday - 15 elected only the PAO, 25 both the PAO and the chairman, and one only the chairman. I was in Surat Thani the first half of April, so I have seen lots of election posters, though much less than much less than before a national election in Bangkok. The candidate of list number 2 in most constituencies is the one endorsed by the Democratic Party, but this is specialty of the south of Thailand as normally the members of the PAO have no party affiliation. I have also seen only very few cars driving around doing election commercials.

The only thing in English about these elections I have found so far is an article in The Nation published on Monday. The Election Commission has nothing about these elections on their English site, while the Thai site lists the provinces which went to vote last Sunday or will go next weekend. I have tried to find the list of constituencies, at least for Surat Thani, but haven't been able to do so, neither the EC nor the province website have such information. So the only things I know are that there are at least 5 constituencies in Mueang district, and that Chaiya district forms a single constituency. For two of the Mueang constituencies I have photos of posters with the list of subdistricts (tambon) or villages (muban) within that constituency. So constituency 2 covers subdistrict Talad, village 5 of Bang Kung and villages 1 and 4 of Makhian Thia. Constituency 5 covers village 1 to 4 of Bang Kung, the full subdistricts Bang Pho, Bang Sai, Bang Chana, Bang Bai Mai and Khlong Chanak.

At the province hall the full list of candidates and some other papers, maybe be the voters directory, were on public display on several movable walls. When I looked around them, I haven't noticed a constituency map either. I have also got myself a leaflet explaining the voters in Surat Thani about this election - guess I will try to translate it, both for training my Thai and for putting something unique here.

Municipal decisions from December 28 2007

In the 62nd meeting of the 2nd board on December 28 2007, the final meeting of last year, five TAO in Mukdahan province are upgraded to subdistrict municipalities, all already effective February 28 2008.

• Ban Kaeng (เทศบาลตำบลบ้านแก้ง), Don Tan district, covering 24.13 km², 7 villages and 2,834 citizen.
• Nong Sung Nuea (เทศบาลตำบลหนองสูงเหนือ), Nong Sung district, covering 34.5 km², 13 villages and 4,654 citizen.
• Ban Pao (เทศบาลตำบลบ้านเป้า), also Nong Sung district, covering 38 km², 6 villages and 3,892 citizen.
• Phu Wong (เทศบาลตำบลภูวง), also Nong Sung district, covering 34.60 km², 7 villages and 2,654 citizen.
• Rom Klao (เทศบาลตำบลร่มเกล้า), Nikhom Kham Soi district, covering 45 km², 7 villages and 3,084 citizens.

Return of annexed provinces to French Indochina

At the end of World War II when Japan finally had to surrender, Thailand's alliance with Japan became a burden. Thanks to the fact that quite a lot of high-ranking officials had supported the Seri Thai underground movement against the Japanese occupation, and of course also a lot of diplomatic work, Thailand remained independent and without territorial losses. Well, except that the four provinces it won back from French Indochina in 1941 had to be returned to retain the status-quo before the war.

France considered itself to be at war with Thailand, while Thailand claimed to be at peace following the friendship treaty of 1941. In a diplomatic note of September 1945 France demanded the return of the territory, and even the return of the Emerald Buddha to Vientiane, from where it was won by Kind Rama I in 1784. This last demand was of course unacceptable by the Thai government, and was removed from the contract proposal relative quickly. On the other hand, the Thai suggestion of a referendum in these areas about their future status was also turned down. In May 1946 France started firing shells to the Thai cities Nakhon Phanom and Tha Uthen, and only thanks to the Thai side staying calm with did not turn into a full-scale conflict. After several further months of negotiations the final contract was signed on November 1 1946 in Washington. In part it were these open issues with France which delayed the membership in the United Nations till December 1946 as France vetoed until it regained the lost territory.

Municipal decisions from January 4 2008

Meeting number 2 from January 4 2008 with three TAO upgraded to subdistrict municipalities.

• Um Mao (เทศบาลตำบลอุ่มเม้า), Thawat Buri district, Roi Et province, effective January 20 2008. The TAO was created in 1997, covers 39 km², 15 villages and 7,830 citizen.
• Ban Don (เทศบาลตำบลบ้านดอน), U Thong district, Suphanburi province, effective March 1 2008. The TAO was created in 1996, covers 36.62 km², 9 villages and 7,755 citizen.
• Pak Nam (เทศบาลตำบลปากน้ำ), Doem Bang Nang Buat district, Suphanburi province, effective July 1 2008. The TAO was created in 1996, covers 37 km², 7 villages and 4,841 citizen.