Straycat Posted January 10, 2002 Report Share Posted January 10, 2002 I find this interesting as well! Hopefully, some of the "better knowing" will come by here and fill us in on a few. Meanwhile, I can recommend "Thai Ways" by Denis Segaller (The Post Publishing Company, 3rd Ed, 2001, ISBN: 974-202-006-X). The book is basically about social life, manners and customs in Thailand. But there is also a chapter devoted to names, words and language. He cover some cities and parts of Bangkok and it's meaning in English. (You'll find the book in any of the Asian Bookstore branches.) A few examples: Bang Pa-In = "Village Where I Met the Girl Called In" Don Muang = "The City's High Ground" ...and... Sukhumvit Rd. = "The Road of Wisdom" Straycat [ January 10, 2002: Message edited by: Straycat ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2002 Report Share Posted January 10, 2002 Just a few which immediately spring to mind: Ang Thong = Basin of Gold Aranyaprathet = Land of Forest/Jungle Ayutthaya = Not to be Warred upon Chantaburi = City of the Moon Chaiyaphoom = Land of Victory Chiang Mai = New City Hua Hin = Headrock Kamphaeng Phet = Diamond (City) Wall Kanachanaburi = City of Gold Kraburi - not sure; could be "City of the Elephant Trunk (kara in Sanskrit); the town is located at the "elephant trunk" end of Thailand Lopburi = City of Profit Mukdahan = Necklace of Pearls Nakhon Nayok = City of the Warrior Chiefs (nayaka in Sanskrit also happens to mean "actor") Nakhon Phanom = City of the Hill (phanom is Khmer for hill) Nakhon Prathom = First City Nakhon Ratchasima = City at the Border of the Kingdom Nakhon Sawan = Heavenly City Nakhon Si Thammarat = City of the Noble King of the Dhamma Narathiwat = Dwelling Place of Intelligent Men Petchaburi = City of Diamonds Phitsanulok = World (Place) of Vishnu Phuket = Hill (from Malay bukit) Prachinburi = Ancient City Ranong = Place of Much Water Sankhlaburi - I'm not sure here; tracing it back to Sanskrit it might either be "City of the Massacre" or "City of the Mixed People" - maybe Sukhothai = Dawn of Happiness Surat Thani = City of the Good People Thonburi = City of Riches Ubon Ratchathani = Royal City of the Lotus Udon Thani = Northern City Yasothon = Yashodhara (the name of Buddha's wife) Many of the town names in Central and Northeastern Thailand are derived from Sanskrit words. Not so in the North, where one can often trace them back to the old Lanna language. The South has a few Sanskrit-derived names, some are from Malay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2002 Report Share Posted January 10, 2002 To add to my former post: The names of Thais always have a meaning (of course). Some are quite interesting. My favourite (hahahaha!) Thai person's name is Thaksin Shinawatra. This should be from Sanskrit Dakshina Jinapatra. "Dakshina" means south, and by extension, "right" (because in olden times the east was considered "up", so south would be on the right-hand side). It can also mean "a gift to a temple/to the gods". Jinapatra means "the winning person/personality". So we get something like, Mr.Right with the Winning Personality, or Gift to the Gods with the Winning Personality. But no good gift to the Thai people, I fear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2002 Report Share Posted January 10, 2002 Hi Scum Welcome back. And thanks for the info. I like staring at maps. Do you see Sanskrit influence on place names extending out into neighboring regions as well -- into parts of Cambodia, Laos etc? (Of course not necessarily in the Thai language form.) Ciao! micsnee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BkkShaggy Posted January 10, 2002 Report Share Posted January 10, 2002 quote: Originally posted by Scum_Baggio: Nakhon Nayok = City of the Warrior Chiefs (nayaka in Sanskrit also happens to mean "actor") Gotta jump in here. You're probably right. But there is another assumption how the name might be derived from. In the olden days, Nakhon Nayok was very poor becaue of the bad plantation years - so poor that the governor at the time didn't levy its subjects. As you know that they ususally levied tax on the agricultural production. The word "Na" in this case means "plantation field", and "yok" means "lift up" in this case meaning "(the tax was)waiven ". Sooo..Nakhon Nayok could mean "the city where the tax was waiven" or something like that. Make sense ? Just would like to add a few words to your list. Singburi = City of Lion. It was derived from Sanskrit - "Singha Pura", where Singha = Lion and "Pura"= city. The same origin as "Singapore" and "Singha" Beer! Supanburi = Golden city. Supan = gold, buri came from, again, Sanskrit = city. Nontaburi = City of Merry Kalasin = Black water/sea. Kala = black. Sin was written as "Sindhu" in Thai (just like the name of the river in India)but with the mute sound at the second syllable so it is pronounced as "Sin" = water,sea,ocean. Samut Prakarn = Sea Fortress. "Samutara" became "samut" meaning =Sea. Prakarn= fortress. That's it for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2002 Report Share Posted January 11, 2002 BkkShaggy, I agree with all your translations except the one for Nakhon Nayok. It's Sanskrit Nagara Nayaka, I'm certain. Your interpretation is unlikely as it would combine a Sanskrit word (nagara) with a Thai one. I don't think you would find any such combination. The combination Nakhon Phanom, which I mention, is more excusable, as the Khmer word phanom is - as far as I know - of Indian (Tamil) descent. Nonthaburi is, to be precise, The City of Joy/Delight (Sanskrit Nanda-Puri). By some interesting extension, nanda also means "son" - after all the birth of a son in India has always been a matter of great rejoicing. In Indian mythology, Nanda is also the name of Krishna's foster-father. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2002 Report Share Posted January 11, 2002 Micsnee, yes, there are a few such names, but really not many. I have a map of Thailand in front of me which shows bits of the neighbouring countries, so let's see ... Suwannakhet (Laos) - Golden Region/Land. Now, some maps show this place as Sawannakhet, which would mean Heavely Region, but I think the former version is the correct one. My map shows a town called Uthomphon near Suwannakhet; this may well be Sanskrit Uttamaphala, Highest Gain/Fruit. Then I see a cave called Mahaxai, which should be Sanskrit Mahajaya, Great Victory. Without going through all the places on the map, I'd say that only a small minority are of Sanskrit origin. In Cambodia I would only expect very few Sanskrit-derived names. Khao Phra Viharn, as a temple, naturally has some Skt. influence: Khao of course is Thai for mountain, and Phra Viharn should be Sanskrit Vara Vihara, "excellent Vihara". I'm sure you know what a Vihara/Viharn is in Buddhist architecture. The name Cambodia is probably derived from Skt. Kambu-ja, "The Descendants of Kambu". Kambu was a legendary Indian king who ruled over a part of Northwestern India - which in the ancient historical context actually means Northwest Pakistan or/and Afghanistan. The Kambu-ja migrated into the region of today's Cambodia. In Myanmar I don't expect any Sanskrit-related names; and I think there are only very few such names in Malaysia. That said, the very name Malaysia is possibly a contracted form of Suwarna-mali-giri, "Mountains of the Golden Flowers". Always at your service, SB [ January 10, 2002: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2002 Report Share Posted January 11, 2002 BkkShaggy, just a few small corrections and additions: Thai "samut" is from Skt. "samudra". There's also a town call Samut Songkhram, literally the "Ocean of Slaughter/Massacre". In today's Thai, "songkhram" of course means war, but the orininal Skt. form (sanhara) means massacre, bloodbath. Why the town name was coined - I haven't got a clue. Some historical occurence? The river Sindhu or Indus is in today's Pakistan. The word Sindhu is also the origin of the word Hindu - Hindu originally meant nothing but "a person living beyond (east) of the Indus". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2002 Report Share Posted January 11, 2002 Brilliant stuff! A lot coming from Sanskrit. I'm printing this out for future reference. I hope more posts follow! Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2002 Report Share Posted January 11, 2002 BkkShaggy, What about Kabinburi? Could it be - as I suspect - "The Reddish/Brown City"? "Kapila" in Skt. literally means "monkey-coloured", in other words reddish or brown. It also was the name of a Hindu sage (supposedly an incarnation of Vishnu) and is still given to Indian (male) children. Know the cricketer Kapil Dev? Kabinburi could then of course also be "Kapila's Town". [ January 10, 2002: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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