Hello,

usually not referring to Wikipedia, but it explains it quite well this time:

"Thailand mainly uses the Buddhist Era which is 543 years ahead of the Gregorian year. The year AD 2006 is indicated as 2549 BE in Thailand. Despite adopting ISO 8601, Thai official date is still written in DDMMYYYY format, such as 1 January 2549 BE (AD 2006) or 23/04/2555."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_time_notation_in_Thail...

See also the government forms:
http://download.rd.go.th/fileadmin/download/english_form/frm...
http://download.rd.go.th/fileadmin/download/english_form/frm...

They state "Year (B.E.)" here. I would have replied sooner, but you're 1234 threw me off. That is around 1778 in terms of our numbering system!

See also https://www.facebook.com/BuddhAmbedkarWe/posts/4670703900305...
for calculating the right date.


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Note added at 1 hr (2014-07-21 17:40:08 GMT)
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Of course, you're -> your

I guess I got lost somewhere between using too many contractions these days and changing a sentence midway.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2014-07-21 18:08:34 GMT)
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@Cristina: Thanks for pointing this out!

The Thai Buddhist calendar starts in January. It used to start in spring, but was shortened to match the Gregorian calendar months. The Thailand calculation, as Cristina noted, differs from my link given above: subtract 543.

See also:
"In all Theravada traditions, the calendar's epochal year 0 date was the day in which the Buddha attained parinibbāna. However, not all traditions agree on when it actually took place. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, it was 13 May 544 BCE (Tuesdsay, Full moon of Kason 148 Anjanasakaraj).[3] But in Thailand, it was 11 March 545 BCE, the date which the current Thai lunisolar and solar calendars use as the epochal date. Yet, the Thai calendars for some reason have fixed the difference between their Buddhist Era (BE) numbering and the Christian/Common Era (CE) numbering at 543,[4] which points to an epochal year of 544 BCE, not 545 BCE. In Myanmar, the difference between BE and CE can be 543 or 544 for CE dates, and 544 or 543 for BCE dates, depending on the month of the Buddhist Era (as the Buddhist calendar straddles the Gregorian calendar—currently from April to April)."
http://cdn.worldheritage.org/articles/Buddhist_calendar

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Note added at 2 hrs (2014-07-21 18:41:50 GMT)
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@Katja Schoone
Of course, I probably would have done something similar. I think your discussion entry helped a lot. As did your short explanation at the beginning.

Maybe I should have rather posted the entire explanation under References. There are three ways of translating the initialism: Buddhistische Ära, Buddhistische Zeitrechnung or keep the B.E.

See: http://das-buddhistische-haus.de/pages/de/die-ausbreitung-de... (B.E.)
http://eu-community.daad.de/index.php?id=43&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=66&cHash=f9f591fe2a6da88d882c456a4f185462 (Ära)
http://www.international-zen-temple.de/deu/events/birthday.h...
(Zeitrechnung)

I guess B.E., an asterix, and a note at the bottom of the page are in order.

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Note added at 2 days5 hrs (2014-07-23 21:09:30 GMT) Post-grading
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Thank you, Katja!

Let me reiterate: How many years you have to subtract from the Buddhist calendar year to get the Gregorian calendar year depends on the country you're translating a text for (the Facebook link at the top was from a Malaysian site that does not follow Thai rules), and the respective calendar might have been subject to change (New Year may also not be the same!). Thailand is a good example:

"In Thailand, the Buddhist Era is reckoned to have an epochal year 0 from 11 March 545 BC, believed to be the date of the death of Gautama Buddha. King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) changed year counting to this Buddhist Era (BE) and moved the start of the year back to April 1 in 2455 BE, AD 1912.

In 1941, Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram decreed January 1 as the start of the year 2484 BE, so year 2483 BE had only nine months. To convert dates from January 1 to March 31 prior to that year, the number to add or subtract is 542; otherwise, it is 543."
http://www.changnoi-0815.de/englisch/e_kalender.htm

Can't get much more confusing, can it?

Thus, please keep in mind that the Buddhist-Gregorian conversion may vary depending on which country and time period your translation relates to.