Krungtepmahankorn

[Melom]

For long I seen widely used translation of Thai capital's name which roams from encyclopedia to guidebooks. It seems pretty loose retelling:

Quote

City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Visvakarman at Indra's behest.

 

I dared to write more complete translation of original Thai verses, trying to keep closer to the original text and avoiding local terms which may be not familiar to a Western reader.

 

Here it is what I got.

 

The divine capital, majestic conurbation
Of immortal Chakri dynasty,
Invincible citadel,
Holy mark on the world's forehead,
Town of nine celestial treasures,
Site of abundant royal palace,
Residence of immortal Avatars,
In the King of Heaven behest
By the Lord of Being erected.
 

[cooked]

WHAT nine celestial treasures? 

Personally I learnt the -mahankorn bit off car license plates...

[Melom]

There is no defined description what is "nine treasures" or "nine gems". Obviously it is not a material artifact made of nine gems, though such may be used as a symbol. On my opinion it is compound of nine merit qualities which by tradition is necessary to establish a great capital.