---
node: ramkhamhaeng_inscription
type: event
slug: ramkhamhaeng_inscription
title: "Ram Khamhaeng Inscription"
lead: "The Ram Khamhaeng Inscription is a four-sided stone stele bearing a date equivalent to 1292, written in an early form of the Thai script and portraying King Ram Khamhaeng's Sukhothai as prosperous and benevolently ruled. It is the founding document of the Thai national narrative, though its authenticity has been debated since the late 1980s."
published: 2026-07-10
updated: 2026-07-10
---

## What happened

The stele, known as Inscription One, is a four-sided stone pillar bearing a date equivalent to 1292 and written in an early form of the Thai script. It describes King Ram Khamhaeng's Sukhothai as prosperous and benevolently ruled — in a famous line, paraphrased: in the water there are fish, in the fields there is rice. It also says a bell hung at the gate for any subject to ring and seek the king's justice, and it credits the king with devising the Thai script, a feat tradition dates to 1283.

## Background

The stele was found in 1833 at Sukhothai by Prince Mongkut — the future King Rama IV — during his years as a monk.

## Consequences

The inscription became the founding document of the Thai national narrative and the earliest claimed evidence of the Thai script; it was inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World register in 2003. Since the late 1980s, some scholars have argued that parts or all of it could be a 19th-century composition, while mainstream Thai scholarship upholds its authenticity. The debate remains unresolved.