Now we know the origin of the words “Ma-prao” and “Kala”, which means coconut and coconut shell in Thai, respectively. Next I’ll talk about a coconut-related word – Tanan.
Tanan is a name of Thai ancient measurement, mostly used in measuring rice. The Tanan is made from the coconut shell with one “eye”. In Thai history, the word Tanan was officially mentioned in the era of King Ramathibodi I, the founder of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya. However, it was believe that coconut shell was used as Tanan since, at least, in the Kingdom of Sukhothai era, due to the resourcefulness of coconut in Siam at that time.
In the time of King Rama VI, Thai ancient measurement was converted to the metric system. The Tanan was officially announced that equal to one liter. However, due to the famous of the metric system, the use of Thai ancient measurement was gradually decreased. Nowadays, Tanan is only used in child’s play song or idiom, like “stuffed with Tanan” means very packed.
The word “Tanan”, like Ma-prao and Kala, is not originally Thai word. Some believe that it derived from the Marathi word “Naral” means coconut. Others believe that it comes from the Khom word “Neal” means coconut shell (some say that the word Neal is exactly Naral, in Khom accent). Since these kingdoms had the culture exchanging with Siam for the long time, both hypothesis are acceptable.
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