Symbols of Thailand

What would you say the symbol of your country is? One of my students came up to me the other day and asked what is the symbol of England. I couldn’t really think of any one symbol. Certainly not an official one. My student suggested Big Ben which is partly true but that is really a national icon. Something that represents the country. In the Amerian movies, if they want to show their audience that the movie is now set in England they will show Big Ben or the Tower of London. What about Thailand? What would you say are the symbols of this country? This is a question I ask my students every year. I usually get the ball rolling by suggesting “tuk tuk” and “elephant”. We then brainstorm more ideas and write them on the blackboard. We end up with 45 symbols and the students then have to pick one each to write about. Here are some of the symbols they came up with:

I have five books now showing the Symbols of Thailand from a student’s point of view. A selection of these can be found on our school’s web site. We also have many more in English and Thai at the learningthai.com web site.

But what about the official symbols of Thailand? Well, recently, the Thai government agreed on three national symbols to represent the Kingdom: the elephant as the national animal, the golden shower flower (known in Thai as Ratchaphruek) as the national flower, and the pavilion as the national architectural symbol. Only one of those was on my students’ list.