Sawasdee Statue of a Thai Boy in Green 30" to 60" Tall

sā.wàt.dīː] and sometimes romanized as "sawasdee". This verbal greeting is usually followed by "kha" when spoken by a female and by "khrap" when spoken by a male person (see note on Thai polite particles). The word "sawatdi" was coined in the mid-1930s by Phraya Upakit Silapasan of Chulalongkorn University. It is derived from the Sanskrit "svasti" (स्वस्ति meaning 'well-being'). Previously, it had been used in Thai only as a formulaic opening to inscriptions. In the early 1940s, the strongly nationalist government of Plaek Phibunsongkhram promoted its use in the government bureaucracy and the wider populace as part of a more comprehensive set of cultural edicts to modernize Thailand.