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Geography

Southern Thailand is located on the Malay Peninsula, with an area around 70,713 km², bounded to the north by Kra Isthmus as the narrowest part of the peninsula. The western part has steeper coasts, while on the east side river plains dominate. The largest river of the south is the Tapi, which together with the Phum Duang drains more than 8,000 km², more than 10% of the total area of Southern Thailand. Smaller rivers include the Pattani, Saiburi, Krabi and the Trang. The biggest lake of the south is the Songkhla lake (1,040 km² altogether), the largest artificial lake is the Chiao Lan (Ratchaprapha dam) with 165 km² within the Khao Sok national park.

Running through the middle of the peninsula are several mountain chains, with the highest elevation at the 1835 m high Khao Luang in the Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. Ranging from the Kra Isthmus till the Phuket island is the Phuket chain, which connects to the Tanao Si Mountain Range further north. Almost parallel to the Phuket chain but 100km to the east is the Nakhon Si Thammarat or Banthat chain, which begins with the Samui island and ends at the Malaysian border at the Ko Ta Ru Tao archipelago.

History

The Malay peninsula was settled since prehistoric times. Archeological remains were found in several caves, some used for dwellings, other as burial sites as well. The oldest remains were found in Lang Rongrien cave dating 38,000 to 27,000 years before present, and in the contemporary Moh Khiew cave.

In the first millennium Chinese chronicles mention several coastal cities or city-states, however they don't give exact geographical location, so the identification of these cities with the later historical cities is difficult. The most important of these states were Langkasuka, usually considered a precursor of the Pattani kingdom; Tambralinga, probably the precursor of the Nakhon Si Thammarat kingdom, or P'an-p'an, probably located at the Bandon Bay. The cities were highly influenced by Indian culture, and have adopted Brahman or Buddhist religion. When Srivijaya extended its sphere of influence, those cities became tributary states of Srivijaya.

After Srivijaya lost its influence, Nakhon Si Thammarat became the dominant kingdom of the area. During the rule of King Ramkhamhaeng the Great of Sukhothai, Thai influence first reached Nakhon Si Thammarat. According to the Ramkhamhaeng inscription Nakhon was even a tributary state of Sukhothai. During most of the later history Nakhon became a tributary of Ayutthaya.

The deep south belonged to the Malay sultanates of Pattani and Kedah, while the northernmost part of the peninsula was under direct control of Bangkok.

During the thesaphiban reforms at the end of the 19th century, both Nakhon Si Thammarat as well as Pattani were finally incorporated into the central state. The area was subdivided into 5 monthon, which were installed to control the city states (mueang). Minor mueang were merged into larger ones, thus forming the present 14 provinces. With the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 the boundary to Malaysia was fixed. Kedah came under british control, while Pattani stayed with Siam.