No, Thailand Is Not Changing Bangkok's Name To Krung Thep Maha Nakhon

Royal Society had earlier proposed to change the way the capital would be referred to internationally — from 'Krung Thep Maha Nakhon; Bangkok' to 'Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Bangkok)'.

Representational image of Bangkok whose local name is Krung Thep Maha Nakhon | Photo: Getty

New Delhi: Earlier this week, the Thailand Cabinet approved a proposal from the Royal Society to change the way capital Bangkok would be referred to internationally — from “Krung Thep Maha Nakhon; Bangkok” to “Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Bangkok)”.

The little change in punctuation in the official guidance — from semicolon to parentheses — sparked speculation that Thailand is going to call its capital Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, the local name of the city, and drop the more familiar ‘Bangkok’.

The Royal Society of Thailand, which is responsible for academic and linguistic standards, has now said there is no such plan, news agency AP reported.

In the Thai language, Bangkok is already officially known as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, shortened to just Krung Thep by many. 

To quell the growing speculation about the name change, with non-Thai speakers not open to the idea of adopting the long and more complicated name, the Royal Society took to Facebook Wednesday to issue a clarification about what they called the “stylistic change”.

“Writing the capital city’s official name with the Roman alphabet can be done both as Krung Thep Maha Nakon and Bangkok,” the society said in the Facebook post.

About Krung Thep Maha Nakhon

Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, the local name for Bangkok, literally means “great city of angels”, according to the AP report.

The Thailand capital has an interesting story attached to its full, actual name. Krung Thep Maha Nakhon is actually a short form of an evb longer name that has roots in Pali and Sanskrit.

According to the Guinness World Records, it’s the longest name for a place in the world.

Here goes the 168-letter name: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit.