Siamese Northern Exposure

Nicholas Farrelly - 15 Aug, 2006

Since my last visit to Mae Sai, a spruced up sign has been erected to mark the northern-most point of the country.

The Thai reads: “The Northernmost point of Siam(ese Territory)”. This is an interesting way of expressing a geographic claim in modern day “Thailand”. Of course, other things around here still use Siam – but this is a particularly prominent spot where tens of thousands of people get their picture taken.

Does anybody out there in the blogosphere have any ideas about why Siam is retained in this particular context. Is it just because it sounds/looks better? Has echoes of a glorious Siamese past? Fits on the sign?

Any ideas?

About the Author
Nicholas Farrelly
Dr Nicholas Farrelly is the co-founder of New Mandala. A graduate of the Australian National University and the University of Oxford, over the past 20 years he has undertaken research in Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China and India. Nicholas is Head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania and formerly the Associate Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, where he also led the ANU Myanmar Research Centre from 2015 to 2017.
New Mandala is supported by the Australian National University (ANU), a world-leading centre of research and teaching on Southeast Asia that has hosted the site since its founding in 2006. New Mandala's editors make editorial decisions independently of the ANU, and the views expressed at New Mandala are solely those of contributors and do not represent the institutional position(s) of the ANU or any of its constituent parts.
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