Friday, July 17, 2009

Prince of ... titles

Statue of the Prince of ChumphonA lot of the royals in the beginning of the 20th century are known by titles like "Prince of Chumphon" or "Prince of Chainat". It was apparently introduced by King Chulalongkorn modeled after the usage in England, most famously the Prince of Wales who is the heir apparent there. In English it is rendered as "Prince of", while in Thai it is "กรมหลวง" (Krom Luang).

I had tried to ask for more details in the 2bangkok forum, but did not get much then. So what would be most interesting is which of the provinces were used for a royal title, especially if one of the no longer existing provinces like e.g. Lang Suan was among them, or if any title was given to more than one royalty. Those I have read about quite often are the following
  • Prince of Chumphon (กรมหลวงชุมพรเขตอุดมศักดิ์), Abhakara Kiartiwongse, the founder of the Thai Navy. The statue in the photo above is showing him.
  • Prince of Songkhla (กรมหลวงสงขลานครินทร์), Prince Mahidol, the father of the King
  • Prince of Chainat (กรมหมื่นชัยนาทนเรนทร), Prince Rangsit Prayurasakdi
  • Princess of Narathiwat (กรมหลวงนราธิวาสราชนครินทร์), Galyani Vadhana, the elder sister of the King. She was also the latest one who received such a title in 1995
Only found with the help of the Thai Wikipedia and their list of all Krom Luang are a prince of Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Chaisi, Phichit, Phitsanulok, Phetchaburi, Ratchaburi, and Lopburi. But these are only those who have an article in the Thai Wikipedia so far, so quite likely it is incomplete. These titles should not be confused with the "na" family names, e.g. the "na Ranong" (ณ ระนอง) family. These are the descendants of the former local aristocracy of the former provincial governors before the thesaphiban reforms. Especially the na Ranong family would be worth a separate blog posting.

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