Pridi Banomyong

Pridi wrote that his great-great-great-grandfather, Heng, was a native of Etang Village in the Chenghai County of Guangdong Province, southern China, who came to Siam during the reign of Boromaracha V (Ekkathat) (r. 1758–1767), 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.

Pridi Phanomyong was born in Tha Wasukri Ayutthaya Province, the second of five children.

He had two half-siblings from his father's minor wife.

Pridi Banomyong (ปรีดี พนมยงค์,, ; 11 May 1900 – 2 May 1983), also known by his noble title Luang Praditmanutham (หลวงประดิษฐ์มนูธรรม), was a Thai statesman and professor.

He led Thailand while serving in multiple ministerial posts, as regent, and as prime minister.

He led the civilian wing of Khana Ratsadon, and helped found the University of Moral and Political Sciences and the Bank of Thailand.

In 1915, following a royal decree issued by King Vajiravudh, Pridi and his family dropped "Nai" from their names.

He completed his secondary education at Suankularb Wittayalai School.

Born to a family of farmers in Ayutthaya province, he received a good education, becoming one of the nation's youngest barristers in 1919, at the age of nineteen.

After graduating from the Law School of the Siamese Ministry of Justice as a barrister with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1919, he received a government scholarship to study law and political economy at Sciences Po in Paris.

While studying in France, he began assembling a group of fifty civil servants who wanted to turn Thailand's then-absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy.

In 1920, he won scholarship to study in France, where he graduated from the University of Caen with a master's degree, and received a doctorate from the University of Paris in 1927.

In the same year, he co-founded Khana Ratsadon with like-minded Siamese overseas students.

After returning to Thailand, still called Siam at the time, he worked as a judge, judicial secretariat, and professor.

Pridi diverged from Plaek Phibunsongkhram after the latter began to display a taste for dictatorial governance in the 1930s, marking the beginning of the long rivalry between the two Khana Ratsadon leaders.

In the aftermath of 1932 Siamese Revolution, he played an important role in drafting two of the country's first constitutions and proposing a socialist economic plan.

His plan was ill-received, and Pridi went into a short period of political exile.

On his return, he took many ministerial posts in Khana Ratsadon governments.

His contributions include modernizing Thai legal codes, laying the foundation for Thailand's local government system, negotiating the cancellation of unequal treaties with the West, and tax reform.

Pridi was made Regent during 1941 to 1945, a powerless post at the time.

Shortly thereafter, he became leader of the domestic Free Thai Movement during World War II.

He briefly became prime minister in 1946, but his political opponents painted him as the mastermind behind the mysterious death of King Ananda Mahidol, and a coup in 1947 cost him his political power.

An attempt to stage a counter-coup in 1949 failed and Pridi spent the rest of his life living in exile.

He died in Paris in 1983, and his ashes were brought back to Thailand three years later.

His image ranged from that of an anti-monarchist democrat to a republican.

The branding of Pridi as a communist and a mastermind of King Ananda's death has since been regarded as politically motivated, which his opponents continued to use even after his death.

However, Pridi won every libel lawsuit in Thailand filed against those who promoted such views.

He became a symbol of resistance against military dictatorships, liberal politics, and Thammasat University.

The centenary of his birth was celebrated by UNESCO in 2000.