Every time we travel to Thailand I’m surprised by my phone’s date switching to the current year in the Buddhist Era. It’s still 2566 B.E (Buddhist Era) in Thailand until Songkran or Thai New Year. Songkran lines up with New Year celebrations in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, parts of northeast India, parts of Vietnam, parts of Malaysia, and parts of Bangladesh. Most of these countries continue to use the International Calendar to officially mark the passage of time but Thailand, as one of the few countries in Asia to have never been colonized, adheres to their own calendar.

Last year, we traveled to another of the few countries in Asia was never colonized, Nepal, and discovered that they also follow their own calendar – the Vikram Samvat. Like the Buddhist calendar used in Thailand, the Vikram Samvat is a lunisolar calendar (based on the sun and moon, not just the sun) that runs from April to March. However, it is a Hindu calendar, not Buddhist, and traces back to the date it was established (57 BCE) rather than a religious date (the Buddhist calendar is set on the year when Siddhartha Gautama is said to have achieved Parinirvana). So, in the Nepal, the current year is 2080 until April when it will become 2081.