thanan

In Thailand, ? – 20^th century, a unit of liquid capacity, after the metric standardization of 1923 = 1 liter¹. Also romanized as kanahn, and as fanan. See fanam for the unit of mass of that name. The word also means “coconut shell,” and the measuring vessel itself was usually a coconut shell. Such a shell was considered a proper measure, for both liquid and dry measure, if it held 830 tamarind seeds.²

Later the thanan was defined as 5 × 5 × 4 niu, thus 100 cubic niu, which, during the period when the wah was defined as 80 inches, made the thanan 57.87037 cubic inches, or about 0.948 liter. At the request of the government of Siam, two thanan standards were tested by the Standards Dept. of the British Board of Trade in 1876.³ One was found to have a capacity of 57.880 cubic inches and the other 58.091 cubic inches, both at 85°F, the temperature specified by Siamese law for calibrating standards.

1. United Nations, 1966.

2. 1894 Directory for Bangkok and Siam.
Bangkok: The Bangkok Times, 1894.
Reprinted by the White Lotus Press (Bangkok), circa 1996.

Page 31.

3. W. A. Browne, 1879. Pages 274-5.