Mom Joa Or Mom Rajawong

[MZurf]

In a reader's comment to an article in a magazine that cannot be quoted here I found the following sentence:

"....Thailand still have castes, i.e., Mom Joa or Mom Rajawong....."

I have never heard of this before. Could someone enlighten me please?

[nicholasday]

I wouldn't necessarily call them castes. They are levels of the royal family. Like Lord, Duke, Earl etc. Although i am not sure which one is higher than the other.

[Boksida]

This might help.

[Johpa]

In a reader's comment to an article in a magazine that cannot be quoted here I found the following sentence:

"....Thailand still have castes, i.e., Mom Joa or Mom Rajawong....."

I have never heard of this before. Could someone enlighten me please?

These titles showed generational distance from "Royal Blood" usually the distance from Rama V, King Chulalongkorn, the last King with many, many progeny. So a Mom Rajawong, if memory serves me correct, would have had Rama V as a grandfather, and a Mom Luang would have had him as a great-grandfather. I think a Mom Cao is a title for a current prince or princess, although I have long forgotten such details from lack, actually total absence of personal usage. After Mom Luang the title of Mom becomes more of a social title in the highly feudal Thai social structure and shows a distant connection to Royalty, but no longer claims status as "royal blood".

[MZurf]

Thank you to all for the info.