Phuket - Web Guide to Travel to Phuket Thailand

Phuket Thailand's biggest island is about the same size as Singapore. The idyllic Andaman Sea waters of Phuket are located 867 km south of Bangkok. Read more now on www.77models.com

Phuket is an island connected by bridges to southern Thailand's Andaman Sea coast, in the Indian Ocean, lying between 7' 45 " and 8' 15" north latitude, and from 98' 15" to 98' 40" west longitude on the map. The largest island in Thailand, Phuket, is surrounded 32 smaller islands which form part of the same administration. It covers an area of 570 kilometers. Measured at its widest point, Phuket is 21.3 kilometers; at its longest, 48.7 kilometers. It is bounded thus:

70% of Phuket is mountainous. A western range runs north to south, from which smaller branches are derived. Mai Tao Sip song, also known as Twelve Canes at 529m, is the highest peak. It lies within Tambon Patong's Kathu District boundaries (no roads have yet been built there). The remaining 30 percent of the island, mainly in the center and south, is formed by low plains. Streams include the Klong Bang Yai, Klong Ta Jin, Klong Ta Rua, and Klong Bang Rohng, none of which is large.

History of Phuket

Phuket Island has a long recorded history, and remanins dating back to A.D.1025 indicate that the island's present day name derives in meaning from the Tamil manikram, or crystal mountain. It was called Junk Ceylon for most of its history. This name, along with variations, can be found on old maps. The name is thought to have its roots in Ptolemy's Geographia, written by the Alexadrian geographer in the Third Century A.D. He said that the Malay Peninsula was not possible without passing the Jang Si Lang cape.

Phuket was a way station on the route between India and China where seafarers stopped to shelter. The island appears to have been part of the Shivite empire (called in Thai the Tam Porn Ling) that established itself on the Malay Peninsula during the first Millenium A.D. Later, as Muang Takua-Talang, it was part of the Srivichai and Siri Tahm empires. Governed as the eleventh in a constellation of twelve cities, Phuket's emblem, by which it was known to others in those largely pre-literate times, was the dog.

During the Sukothai Period, Phuket was associated to Takua Pah in Phang-nga Province. This area also has vast tin reserves. The Dutch established a trading post during the Ayuthaya Period in the 16th Cent. The island's northern and central regions then were governed by the Thais, and the southern and western parts were given over to the tin trade, a concession in the hands of foreigners.

Ayuthaya, which was taken by the Burmese in 1767, was the beginning of a brief interregnum. King Taksin ended the conflict and drove the Burmese out. However, the Burmese were eager to go back on the offensive. They outfitted a fleet to raid the southern provinces, and carry off the populations to slavery in Burma. This led to Phuket's most memorable historic event. A passing sea captain, Francis Light, sent word that the Burmese were en route to attack. The two heroines Kunying Jan, the wife of Phuket's deceased governor, and Mook, her sister, led forces in Phuket. After a month of siege, the Burmese were forced from their homeland on March 13, 1785. Kunying Jan and her sibling were credited for the successful defense.

Kunying Jan was bestowed the honorific Thao Thep Kasatri by King Rama I in recognition of her efforts. This title is a nobility that is usually reserved for royalty. Thao Sri Suntorn became her sister.

In the Nineteenth Century, so many Chinese immigrants came to the island to work in the tin mines that its ethnicity became overwhelmingly Chinese. However, the coastal settlements were populated mainly by Muslim fishermen.

In Rama V's reign, Phuket became the administration center of a group of tin mining provinces called Monton Phuket, and in 1933 with the change in government from absolute monarchy to a parliamentary system, the island was established as a province by itself.