| Date and time notation in Thailand | |
| Label1: | Full date |
| Label2: | All-numeric date |
| Label3: | Time |
Thailand has adopted ISO 8601 under national standard: TIS 1111:2535 in 1992. However, in practice, there are some variations.
Thailand uses the Thai solar calendar as the official calendar, in which the calendar's epochal date (Year zero) was the year in which the Buddha attained parinibbāna. This places the current year at 543 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar. The year AD is indicated as BE in Thailand. Despite adopting ISO 8601, Thai official date is still written in D/M/YYYY formats, such as 30 January 2567 BE (2024 AD) or 30/1/2567.[1] Anno Domini may be used in unofficial context, and is written in the same format (D/M/YYYY).
In full date format, the year is marked with "พ.ศ." (Buddhist era) or "ค.ศ." (lit. Anno Domini) to avoid confusion. As each calendar is 543 years apart, there is very little confusion in the contemporary context.
There are two systems of telling time in Thailand. Official time follows a 24-hour clock. The 24-hour clock is commonly used in military, aviation, navigation, meteorology, astronomy, computing, logistical, emergency services, and hospital settings, where the ambiguities of the 12-hour clock cannot be tolerated.
In the second, everyday usage, the day is divided into four six-hour periods.[2] Additional words are used to identify the period specified (similar to a.m. or p.m. for a 12-hour system).
The distinguishing words are:[3]
Thailand is in the time zone, which is also known as Indochina Time (ICT) and military time zone Golf.