Phithak Thephamat

Krom Phra Thephamat (Thai: กรมพระเทพามาตย์, died 1774), also known as Iang (เอี้ยง) or Nok-iang (นกเอี้ยง), was a royal woman of the Thonburi dynasty, Siam. She was the mother of Taksin.

Official records of Thailand stated that she was a Thai noble woman, and married a Chinese merchant named Yong Saetae.[1] She gave birth to Taksin the Great on 17 April 1734. Later, Taksin was supposedly raised as nobility because Phithak Thephamat was from a noble family.[2] Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix, also stated that she was a Thai. But, François Turpin stated that she was in fact Chinese;[3] if so, Taksin was a full-blooded Chinese.[2] Kulap Tritsananon, a Thai journalist, also stated that her family name was Ngo (Chinese: 吳, Thai: โหงว).[3]

However, recent studies show that her mother was a younger sister of Phraya Ram Chaturong (Mon: ရာံ), chief of Siam's Mon community during the reign of King Borommakot. She married a Thai man. Krom Phra Themaphamat's cousin brother, Phraya Nakhone In (Ma Khon) served as commander of Krom Dap Song Moe, one of Siam's several Mon military regiments before the fall of Ayutthaya Kingdom. Her cousin sister, a daughter of Phraya Ram Chaturong was Thong-mon who later served as Thaw Songkadan in Taksin's Thonburi Grand Palace.[4] Thus, Krom Phra Themaphamat was a Mon-Thai descent, not a Thai-Chinese.

In 1769, she was awarded the feudal title of Somdet Krom Phra Phithak Thephamat by King Taksin.[5][6] She died in 1774.[5]