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Thursday, May 8, 2008

Nakhon Si Thammarat


Nakhon Si Thammarat (often in short Nakhon, Thai: นครศรีธรรมราช) is one of the southern provinces (changwat) of Thailand, at the eastern shore of the Gulf of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from south clockwise) Songkhla, Phatthalung, Trang, Krabi and Surat Thani.

The name of the province derives from its Pali-Sanskrit name Nagara Sri Dhammaraja (City of the Sacred Dharma King), or Bandar Sri Raja Dharma in Malay, which in Thai pronunciation becames Nakhon Si Thammarat.

The province is located on the shore of the Gulf of Thailand on the east side of the Malay Peninsula. The terrain is mostly rugged hilly forest area. It contains the highest elevation of southern Thailand, the Khao Luang with 1,835 m, now protected in the Khao Luang national park.

The area around Nakhon Si Thammarat was part of the Srivijaya kingdom from the 3rd century. The Ramkhamhaeng stele lists it among the areas within the realm of Sukhothai. After the fall of Sukhothai it fell it its successor, the Ayutthaya kingdom and was one of the tributary kingdoms or 1st class provinces.

With the thesaphiban administrative reforms the kingdom was more closely integrated into the Thai state and formed the Monthon Nakhon Si Thammarat. With the abolishment of the monthon system in 1932, the province covering only the central parts of the former kingdom became the top-level administrative subdivision of Thailand.

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