Thai Buddhist

Thailand's civil calendar · years from the Buddha's passing

Thailand’s civil calendar, and the one its official documents are dated in: Gregorian in structure — the same months, the same leap rules — with the year counted from the Buddha’s passing in 543 BCE, so it runs 543 years ahead. Its years are written BE, the Buddhist Era, the same two letters the Bahá’í Era uses for an entirely unrelated count. Note that this is not the calendar that fixes Vesak and the uposatha days: those follow a separate lunisolar reckoning, set by arithmetic rather than by the observed moon, whose months and day-names are its own. Two calendars share the era; only this one shares the Gregorian year.

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