What Asiatic capital started its career in the last decades of the 18th century as a "City of the Angels"?

zbeckabee

Bangkok became the capital of Thailand after the former capital, Ayutthaya (60 km northwards) was ransacked by the Burmese in 1767 (for more information on this forgotten city, see our Royal Cities module). The general (and governor) of the province of Tak, General Taksin, had to flee Ayutthaya but later drove the rest of the Burmese army out of central Thailand. In 1770, he crowned himself King, and founded a new capital in the province of Thonburi on the western bank of the River Chao Phraya. When Taksin's reign ended in 1782, King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke reconstructed the capital on the east bank of the river and gave the city a ceremonial name which became shortened to its current official name, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (which, like "Los Angeles", means "city of angels"). http://www.thailandtravelplan.co.uk/bangkok.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok Jun 06 09, 3:50 AM

kthnos

Known in Thai as Krung Thep - City of the Angels - Bangkok www.khiri.com/country.cfm?country_id=46 Jun 06 09, 5:17 AM