Pridi Banomyong - Family Background

Family Background

Pridi wrote that his great-great-great grandfather, Heng, was a native of Etang village in Chenghai District, China who came to Siam during the reign of Boromaracha V, leaving behind his wife, who was pregnant with their son, Seng. Heng lived in Siam among the Chinese relatives of King Taksin, who recruited some of the local Chinese, including Heng, to fight against the Burmese invaders in 1767. Heng died in the service of the half-Chinese king. Taksin compensated Heng's family, after they sent a letter inquiring about him. Seng chose to live his life in China as a rice farmer.

However, Seng's son, Tan Nai Kok (陳盛于/陈盛于; Chen Chengyu; Tan Sêng-u), emigrated to Siam in 1814, during the reign of King Rama II. Nai Kok settled in Ayutthaya and made his living by selling Chinese and Thai sweets; it is said he had made innovations by combining Chinese and Thai culinary skills. A devout Buddhist, Nai Kok married a Thai woman named Pin. Pin's sister, Boonma, would become an ancestor of Pridi's wife Poonsuk. Their son, Nai Koet, married Khum, daughter of a wealthy Chinese entrepreneur. When Nai Koet died, his wife directed that his remains were to be cremated and interred at the shrine at Phanomyong hill, which is the origin of their Thai surname. Their son, Nai Siang, who became a wealthy rice merchant, married Lukchan; they were the parents of Pridi. Nai Siang adopted the surname Phanomyong in 1866. (Some other accounts claimed that Nai Siang was a Chinese immigrant himself.)