The Calendars of Southeast Asia: 2: Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia

In this paper we investigate three Burmese calendars: the Arakanese, Makaranta and Thandeikta calendars. It is shown that the lunar calendar of the two first ones imply a tropical solar year, something that puts the lunar calendar out of phase with the sidereal solar calendar used and possibly indicates a Hellenistic origin. We then examine the calendars of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, which superficially are similar to the Burmese calendars but have a completely different system of intercalation (Gislén, 2018; Ôhashi, 2006). Because Thailand, Laos and Cambodia have virtually the same luni-solar calendars, the Thai calendar is examined as a typical example.