Date and time notation in Thailand

Thailand has adopted ISO 8601 under national standard: TIS 1111:2535 in 1992. However, in practice, there are some variations.

Date

Thailand mainly uses the Buddhist calendar which is 543 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar. The year 2018 CE is indicated as 2561 BE in Thailand. Despite adopting ISO 8601, Thai official date is still written in D/M/YYYY formats, such as 30 January 2561 BE (2018 CE) or 16/1/2561.

The first day of the week in Thailand is Sunday.

Time

In Thailand, official time is indicated in 24-hour clock system; however, in spoken language the day is divided into five main periods and two extra time at 00:00 and 12:00 (similar to 'noon' and 'midnight'). Additional words are used to distinguish the period (similar to AM or PM for a 12-hour system).

The distinguishing words are: 00:00-00:59 = 'tiangkuen' 01:00-05:59 = 'tdee' 06:00-11:59 = 'mong chao' 12:00-12:59 = 'tiang' 13:00-15:59 = 'bai mong' 16:00-18:59 = 'mong yen' 19:00-23:59 = 'toom'.

For example; 00:15 in Thailand is 'tiangkuen sib-ha(15)' and 14:38 is 'bai song(2) mong sam-sib-pbad(38)'. Also, after 'tiang','mong yen', and 'tiangkuen' periods, time begins at 1 that makes 01:00 'tdee nueng(1)' and 19:00 'nueng(1) toom', for instance.

Thailand is in the ICT time zone and military Golf time zone G.

See also

• Thai calendar
• Thai solar calendar