In the Thai capital, hundreds of people poured out of buildings after the tremors, with many buildings evacuated.
Footage on social media showed water spilling out of infinity pools in Bangkok – a city of 17 million people where many of them live in high rise apartments.
The epicentre of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake, at a shallow depth of 6 miles (10km), was in neighbouring Myanmar near the city of Mandalay, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
A 6.4 magnitude aftershock was felt around 12 minutes later near Mandalay, the USGS says.
The impact of the quake on Myanmar, which is in the middle of a civil war, is not yet clear.
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