Phraek Si Racha
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Phraek Si Racha (Thai: แพรกศรีราชา, pronounced [pʰrɛ̂ːk sǐː rāː.t͡ɕʰāː]) is a tambon (subdistrict) in Sankhaburi district, Chai Nat province, central Thailand. It contains the town centre of Sankhaburi and the district office, lies along the Noi river, and is divided into sixteen villages under two local authorities. Its population was 14,586 in December 2022.
The subdistrict occupies the site of a much older town. Its name is Mon for a junction of waterways, and the enclosure there is among the largest moated settlements known on the central plain, enlarged in the first millennium from 81 to 315 ha and ranked a regional centre in a locational study of the group. The site has been proposed as the centre of Chen Li Fu, a polity known from Chinese records of about 1200, and under Ayutthaya it was one of the seats to which a royal son was sent. Sankhaburi is thought to have replaced the older name from the middle Ayutthaya period.
Name
Phraek derives from a Mon word for a waterway junction or confluence, so that the name describes a town at the meeting of rivers. Sankhaburi, the present name of the district, is thought to have replaced it from the middle Ayutthaya period.[1]
History
Ancient towns of the Dvaravati–Lopburi period are numerous in the surrounding country, from Nakhon Sawan down through Chai Nat; Dong Khon, now a subdistrict of Sankhaburi about 4 km (2.5 mi) to the south, is one such moated town. Remains at Phraek Si Racha itself, among them those at Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phraya Phraek and Wat Tanod Lai, show that it too was a town.[1] Karen Mudar's survey of the moated settlements of the central plain gives the site an enclosure of 81 ha later enlarged to 315 ha, which makes it one of the three largest on the plain and a regional centre in her four-level hierarchy, with twelve moated settlements in the region assigned to it.[2]: 7–9, 24 A local-history account dates the settlement to about 2,500 years ago.[3]
The site has been proposed as the centre of Chen Li Fu, a polity known from Chinese records of about 1200; the competing proposal places that polity in the Suphan Buri basin.[1] The proposers are Walailak Songsiri and Srisakra Vallibhotama, who put the seat of the confederation in the Phraek Si Racha and Dong Khon area.[4]: 16 Songsiri qualifies the placement herself. Of the small towns running south from Phraek Si Racha to the Suphan and Tha Wa rivers, this is the one that does not continue from the Dvaravati period, and excavation has not settled whether its occupation begins under the Southern Song or under the Yuan; its rampart and moat are also larger than those of the older square towns nearby. She accounts for this by proposing that the seat moved here from the smaller inland waterways.[4]: 16
The same local-history account states that the town is named in the Ram Khamhaeng Inscription as a tributary of the Sukhothai Kingdom.[3] Under Ayutthaya it was one of the seats to which a royal son was sent: in the 1420s, when a prince was first posted to Phitsanulok, two others went to Suphan Buri and to Phraek Si Racha, on an older pattern of satellite cities in the four cardinal directions.[5]: 66
Phraek Si Racha is remembered as the home of Khun San, a marksman and one of the leaders of the villagers' defence force at the battle of Bang Rachan in the last years of Ayutthaya.[3]
Geography
The subdistrict is low ground along the Noi river, a tributary of the Chao Phraya river, which runs through its eastern edge from north to south. Although it lies along the waterways it has never suffered flooding.[6] The Noi carries boats to the Chao Phraya in what is now Chai Nat province, and other local waterways lead to the Tha Chin, on which Suphannabhum stood in the present Suphan Buri province; by either route the Gulf of Siam could be reached, so that the town served as a passage towards the larger centres of Suphannabhum and Ayutthaya.[1]
Administration
The sub-district is administered by two local government bodies are Phraek Si Racha Sub-district Municipality and Sankhaburi Sub-district Municipality.
The area also consists of 16 administrative mubans (villages).[7]
| No. | Name | Thai |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ban Thiang Thae | บ้านเที่ยงแท้ |
| 2. | Ban Tha Rabat | บ้านท่าระบาตร |
| 3. | Ban Tha Rabat | บ้านท่าระบาตร |
| 4. | Ban Tha Rabat | บ้านท่าระบาตร |
| 5. | Ban Chong | บ้านช่อง |
| 6. | Ban Wang Thong | บ้านวังทอง |
| 7. | Ban Don Aranyik | บ้านดอนอรัญญิก |
| 8. | Ban Phraek Si Racha | บ้านแพรกศรีราชา |
| 9. | Ban Khaek | บ้านแขก |
| 10. | Ban Wat Phra Kaew | บ้านวัดพระแก้ว |
| 11. | Ban Wang Yao | บ้านวังยาว |
| 12. | Ban Wang Yao | บ้านวังยาว |
| 13. | Ban Pak Pao | บ้านปักเป้า |
| 14. | Ban Hua Taphan | บ้านหัวตะพาน |
| 15. | Ban Wat Kamphaeng | บ้านวัดกำแพง |
| 16. | Ban Sa Mai Daeng | บ้านสระไม้แดง |
Population
As of December 2022, it has a total population of 14,586.[8]
References
- 1 2 3 4 "'สรรคบุรี-แพรกศรีราชา'เมืองโบราณลุ่มเจ้าพระยา กับการเปลี่ยนทางคมนาคมจากยุคทวารวดี". Matichon Academy (in Thai).
- ↑ Karen M. Mudar (1999). "How Many Dvaravati Kingdoms? Locational Analysis of First Millennium A.D. Moated Settlements in Central Thailand" (PDF). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 18 (1): 1–28. Bibcode:1999JAnAr..18....1M. doi:10.1006/jaar.1998.0329.
- 1 2 3 "ย้อนอดีตเมืองเก่า "ย้อนรอยเล่าขานตำนานเมืองแพรกศรีราชาฯ"". ASTV Manager (in Thai). 2024-12-18. Retrieved 2015-01-26.
- 1 2 Walailak Songsiri (2025). "ในดินแดนแห่งเจนลีฟู นครรัฐที่ไม่ได้อยู่ในอำนาจทางการเมืองของพระเจ้าชัยวรมันที่ ๗ สู่ปัญหาทางประวัติศาสตร์ที่หาทางออกไม่เจอของสังคมไทย" [In the land of Chen Li Fu, a city-state outside the political power of Jayavarman VII, and the historical problem Thai society has not resolved]. Lek-Prapai Viriyaphan Foundation (in Thai). Retrieved 14 July 2025.
- ↑ Chris Baker; Pasuk Phongpaichit (4 July 2017). "Ayutthaya Rising". A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World. Cambridge University Press. pp. 43–84. doi:10.1017/9781108120197. ISBN 978-1-108-12019-7. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
- ↑ "สภาพทั่วไป". Phraeksriracha.go.th (in Thai).
- ↑ "ชัยนาท". Sathai (in Thai).
- ↑ "ระบบสารสนเทศเพื่อการบริหาร". stat.bora.dopa.go.th (in Thai).