Naming the Royal Thai Army Camp in the Context of Political Symbolism

Abstract

Military coup d'état in the year 1947 gave rise to the conceptual ideal of nationalism in form of revitalization of monarchy power as well as military power expansion as accordingly. The role of the Royal Thai army is to keep peace within the country as well as to play a major role in the Thai political system as until today, particularly in the form of expanding its political power in the political local area. This can be seen through its increment and distribution of military manpower in the army camps throughout the country. The names of predominant persons and places have been used to name the army camp so as to build and strengthen the stability of the nation. This article aims to study the naming of the army camps in the sense of political symbolism. The finding of this study indicates that there are three factors influencing to naming the military camps; (1).to follow in the path of conservatism concept (2). to change a new history by giving people recognition (3). to maintain a place in politics as well as to stabilize with the local provinces. Overall, these three factors have become the political symbolism of Thai army which blended in with the Thai society.