Chula Sakarat or Chulasakarat ( pi, Culāsakaraj; my, ကောဇာသက္ကရာဇ်, ; km, ចុល្លសករាជ "''Chulasakarach''"; th, จุลศักราช, , , abbrv. จ.ศ. ''Choso'') is a
lunisolar calendar
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the Ea ...
derived from the
Burmese calendar
The Burmese calendar ( my, မြန်မာသက္ကရာဇ်, , or , ; Burmese Era (BE) or Myanmar Era (ME)) is a lunisolar calendar in which the months are based on lunar months and years are based on sidereal years. The calendar is ...
, whose variants were in use by most
mainland Southeast Asia
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
n kingdoms down to the late 19th century. The calendar is largely based on an older version of the
Hindu calendar
The Hindu calendar, Panchanga () or Panjika is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a s ...
though unlike the Indian systems, it employs a version of the
Metonic cycle
The Metonic cycle or enneadecaeteris (from grc, ἐννεακαιδεκαετηρίς, from ἐννεακαίδεκα, "nineteen") is a period of almost exactly 19 years after which the lunar phases recur at the same time of the year. The recu ...
. The calendar therefore has to reconcile the
sidereal year
A sidereal year (, ; ), also called a sidereal orbital period, is the time that Earth or another planetary body takes to orbit the Sun once with respect to the fixed stars.
Hence, for Earth, it is also the time taken for the Sun to return to the ...
s of the Hindu calendar with Metonic cycle's tropical years by adding
intercalary months and
intercalary days
Intercalation or embolism in timekeeping is the insertion of a leap day, week, or month into some calendar years to make the calendar follow the seasons or moon phases. Lunisolar calendars may require intercalations of both days and months.
So ...
on irregular intervals.
Although the name ''Culāsakaraj'' is a generic term meaning "Lesser Era" in
Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
, the term ''Chula Sakarat'' is often associated with the various versions of the calendar used in regions that make up modern-day
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
. The calendar is used in
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
and the
Sipsong Panna
Xishuangbanna, Sibsongbanna or Sipsong Panna ( Tham: , New Tai Lü script: ; ; th, สิบสองปันนา; lo, ສິບສອງພັນນາ; shn, သိပ်းသွင်ပၼ်းၼႃး; my, စစ်ဆောင် ...
area of China. In Thailand, it is only used in academia for
Thai history studies.
Etymology
The name Chula Sakarat is a
loan translation
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language whi ...
from the Thai, which itself is derived from Pali ''culā'' "small" and Sanskrit ''śaka'' + ''rāja'', literally meaning "
Scythian
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
king" (the meaning was thought and held to be "era" by some of those having adopted the
Indianised culture in
Indochina
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
, including the Thais).
In Thailand, this era is used in contrast with the
Shalivahana era
The Shaka era ( IAST: Śaka, Śāka) is a historical Hindu calendar era (year numbering), the epoch (its year zero) of which corresponds to Julian year 78.
The era has been widely used in different regions of India as well as in SE Asia.
His ...
, commonly known in Southeast Asia as ''Mahāsakaraj'' or the Great or Major Era ( my, မဟာ သက္ကရာဇ်, ; km, មហាសករាជ "''Mohasakarach''"; th, มหาศักราช; ).
History
The calendar was launched in 640 CE in
Sri Ksetra Kingdom
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Sri Ksetra
, common_name = Kingdom of Sri Ksetra
, era = Classical Antiquity
, status = City-state
, event_start = Founding of Kingdom
, year_start = c. 3rd to 9th century CE
, date_start =
, ...
(in modern
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
) with the epochal year 0 date of 22 March 638. It was largely a recalibration of then prevailing
Mahasakaraj or Saka Era. It was later adopted by the
Pagan Kingdom
The Kingdom of Pagan ( my, ပုဂံခေတ်, , ; also known as the Pagan Dynasty and the Pagan Empire; also the Bagan Dynasty or Bagan Empire) was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-da ...
.
[Aung-Thwin 2005: 35] According to the Chiang Mai Chronicles and the Chiang Saen Chronicles, Chiang Mai, Chiang Saen and their tributary states of middle and upper Tai country (except Lamphun and Sukhothai) submitted to King
Anawrahta
Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...
and adopted the calendar in the mid-11th century in place of Mahasakaraj, the standard calendar of the
Khmer Empire.
[Oriental 1900: 375–376] However, scholarship says the earliest evidence of Burmese calendar in modern Thailand dates only to mid-13th century.
[Eade 1989: 11]
The use of the calendar appears to have spread southward to the
Sukhothai and eastward to Laotian states in the following centuries.
[Oriental 1900: 375–376] The official adoption farther south by the
Ayutthaya Kingdom
The Ayutthaya Kingdom (; th, อยุธยา, , IAST: or , ) was a Siamese kingdom that existed in Southeast Asia from 1351 to 1767, centered around the city of Ayutthaya, in Siam, or present-day Thailand. The Ayutthaya Kingdom is conside ...
and farther east by
Lan Xang
existed as a unified kingdom from 1353 to 1707.
For three and a half centuries, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The meaning of the kingdom's name alludes to the power of the kingship and formidable war machine of the ea ...
came only after King
Bayinnaung
, image = File:Bayinnaung.JPG
, caption = Statue of Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum of Myanmar
, reign = 30 April 1550 – 10 October 1581
, coronation = 11 January 1551 at Toung ...
's conquests of those kingdoms in the 16th century. Subsequent Siamese kingdoms retained the Burmese calendar as the official calendar under the name of ''Chula Sakarat'' (Culasakaraj) until 1889.
[Smith 1966: 11]
The calendar fell out of use throughout the region in the second half of the 19th century with the advent of European colonialism. The only remaining independent state Siam too dropped the calendar on 1 April 1889 per King
Chulalongkorn
Chulalongkorn ( th, จุฬาลงกรณ์, 20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910) was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, titled Rama V. He was known to the Siamese of his time as ''Phra Phuttha Chao Luang'' (พร ...
(
Rama
Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...
V)'s decree. It was replaced by
Rattanakosin Era. Today, the calendar is used purely for cultural and religious festivals in Myanmar. Thailand has moved on to its own version of Buddhist calendar since 1941 although the Chula Sakarat era dates remain the most commonly used and preferred form of entry by the academia for Thai history studies.
[Eade 1989: 11]
Differences
Nomenclature
Month numbering
Various regional versions of Chula Sakarat/Burmese calendar existed across various regions of mainland Southeast Asia. Unlike Burmese systems,
Sipsong Panna
Xishuangbanna, Sibsongbanna or Sipsong Panna ( Tham: , New Tai Lü script: ; ; th, สิบสองปันนา; lo, ສິບສອງພັນນາ; shn, သိပ်းသွင်ပၼ်းၼႃး; my, စစ်ဆောင် ...
, Kengtung, Lan Na, Lan Xang and Sukhothai systems refer to the months by numbers, not by names . This means reading ancient texts and inscriptions in Thailand requires constant vigilance, not just in making sure one is correctly operating for the correct region, but also for variations within regions itself when incursions cause a variation in practice.
[Eade 1989: 9–10] However, Cambodian (Khmer) month system, which begins with Margasirsa as the first month, demonstrated precisely by the names and numbers.
Note: The Sukhothai and Lan Xang numbering systems and the now abandoned Burmese numbering system are the same.
[Eade 1995: 28–29]
Animal names
Cambodian and Thai systems give animal names to the years from a cycle of 12.
[Eade 1995: 22] The practice also existed in Burma
[Luce 1970: 330] but had died out by the 17th century. In March 1638, King
Thalun
Thalun ( my, သာလွန်မင်း, ; 17 June 1584 – 27 August 1648) was the eighth king of Toungoo dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). During his 19-year reign, Thalun successfully rebuilt the war-torn country which had been under constant wa ...
of Burma rejected the proposal by King
Prasat Thong
Prasat ThongThe Royal Institute. List of monarchs Ayutthaya''. ( th, ปราสาททอง, ; c. 1600–1656; 1629–1656) was the first king of the Prasat Thong dynasty, the fourth dynasty of the Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom.
Accounts vary ...
of Siam to change the animal names of the calendar months because the animal naming system was no longer in use in Burma.
[Rong 1986: 70]
Calculation methodology
Chula Sakarat, like the Burmese calendar, was largely based on the
Hindu calendar
The Hindu calendar, Panchanga () or Panjika is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a s ...
, an older version of ''
Surya Siddhanta
The ''Surya Siddhanta'' (; ) is a Sanskrit treatise in Indian astronomy dated to 505 CE,Menso Folkerts, Craig G. Fraser, Jeremy John Gray, John L. Berggren, Wilbur R. Knorr (2017)Mathematics Encyclopaedia Britannica, Quote: "(...) its Hindu inven ...
''. However, unlike Hindu calendar, it also uses a 19-year
Metonic cycle
The Metonic cycle or enneadecaeteris (from grc, ἐννεακαιδεκαετηρίς, from ἐννεακαίδεκα, "nineteen") is a period of almost exactly 19 years after which the lunar phases recur at the same time of the year. The recu ...
. In order to reconcile the
sidereal month
In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month.
Variations
In Shona, Middle Eastern, and Euro ...
s of Hindu calendar with Metonic cycle's
solar years, the calendar inserts intercalary months and days on some schedule.
[Ohashi 2001: 398–399]
Intercalation
The Siamese system uses three similar but not identical types of lunar years used by the Burmese system.
[ Each calendar has the same regular year of 354 days and a leap year of 384 days. However, whereas the Burmese calendar adds the intercalary day only in a leap cycle according to its Metonic cycle, the Siamese calendar adds the intercalary day to a regular year. The Siamese calendar does add the extra day in the same place (Jyestha/Nayon), however.][Eade 1989: 20]
Length of the year
Down to the mid-19th century, the Burmese calendar and its Siamese cousin both used the ''Surya'' method. But between 1840 and 1853, Konbaung Dynasty
The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...
switched to what it believed was a more accurate method called ''Thandeikta'' (a hybrid of the old ''Surya'' and an updated version of ''Surya'' from India). Thandeikta introduced a slightly longer solar year (0.56 second a year longer than the old system) and a slightly longer lunar month that produces a smaller gap between the two. However, it has turned out that the new system is actually slightly ''less'' accurate (0.56 second a year) than the old system in terms of the drift from the scientifically measured tropical year
A tropical year or solar year (or tropical period) is the time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the sky of a celestial body of the Solar System such as the Earth, completing a full cycle of seasons; for example, the time fro ...
. At any rate, the old and the new systems are 23 minutes 50.8704 seconds and 23 minutes 51.4304 seconds respectively ahead of the actual tropical year. The error continues to mount.[Irwin 1909: 26–27]
Metonic cycle
Since the Thandeikta system not only does not solve but actually increases the accumulating drift issue, Burmese calendarists have resorted to periodically modifying the intercalation schedule of the Metonic cycle, starting in 1839 CE, using apparent reckoning. The fixed Metonic cycle remained in place in Siam.
See also
* Buddhist calendar
The Buddhist calendar is a set of lunisolar calendars primarily used in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand as well as in Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam by Chinese populations for religious or official occasions. While the ...
* Burmese calendar
The Burmese calendar ( my, မြန်မာသက္ကရာဇ်, , or , ; Burmese Era (BE) or Myanmar Era (ME)) is a lunisolar calendar in which the months are based on lunar months and years are based on sidereal years. The calendar is ...
* Saka Era
The Shaka era (IAST: Śaka, Śāka) is a historical Hindu calendar era (year numbering), the epoch (its year zero) of which corresponds to Julian year 78.
The era has been widely used in different regions of India as well as in SE Asia.
Hist ...
* Thai lunar calendar
The Thai lunar calendar ( th, ปฏิทินจันทรคติ, , , literally, ''Specific days according to lunar norms''), or Tai calendar, is a lunisolar Buddhist calendar. It is used for calculating lunar-regulated holy days. Based o ...
References
Bibliography
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{{Calendars
Burmese culture
Calendar eras
Thai culture