Thonburi

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A former royal capital of Siam on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, now a district within the city of Bangkok
2. The old Siamese capital that ruled Thailand briefly in the late eighteenth century and is now part of greater Bangkok
3. A historic riverside city in Thailand that served as the national capital before Bangkok, today forming a district of that metropolis

Etymology: Thonburi is a proper noun, the name of a city on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, directly across from Bangkok. Its name comes from Thai "Thon Buri," and the element "buri" is the Thai and Pali-derived word for "city," so the name reads roughly as "Thon city." The first part, "Thon," is generally explained as a reference to a tree or a local feature of the riverbank, but the precise meaning is not firmly established, so it is safest to treat it as uncertain. The name became historically important in 1768, when King Taksin made Thonburi the capital of the Thonburi Kingdom after the fall of Ayutthaya to Burmese forces. For roughly fifteen years the city served as the seat of Siamese royal power, and its riverside palaces and temples were built during that period. In 1782 King Rama I moved the capital across the river to Bangkok, and Thonburi became a secondary district, which is why the name survives mainly as the designation of the western half of the metropolis and of the Thonburi Old Palace.