Kanchanaburi (, ) is the largest province (changwat) of Western Thailand. Tourists are attracted by the history of its ancient civilization and the World War II Bridge over the River Kwai, originally spelt "Khwae" but officially changed to Kwai to accommodate the expectations of tourists.
History
The Iron Age cemetery of Ban Don Ta Phet lies in the province, within a circular bank and ditch. Chin You-di first excavated it in 1975 and 1976, and Ian Glover and Pisit Charoenwongsa dug there in several seasons between 1975 and 2000. Glover's team used flotation there in the 1980s, one of the earliest applications of the technique in Southeast Asia. Judith Cameron dates the burials from five radiocarbon determinations on rice chaff in the pottery to between 390 and 360 BC, while Charles Higham gives 395 to 350 BC. The graves held about 3,000 glass beads and some 600 of carnelian, agate, quartz and nephrite, cotton in one burial and silk in another, and high-tin bronze bowls; the iron was worked locally, the ornaments were not. Higham describes the graves as laid out on an east–west axis within an encircling moat, an arrangement that has been read as an elite burial ground, and reports iron spears deliberately bent before burial. The high-tin bowls were turned on a lathe to a precise thinness and decorated with incised scenes; Glover matched them to bronzes from Taxila and Adichanallur, which makes an Indian source most likely. Two carnelian lions, one complete, have parallels at the Bhir mound at Taxila. A compositional study reported by Miriam Stark points the other way, and places the manufacture of the high-tin bowls in western Thailand. Stark also gives figures for the excavations and reads the cemetery as one of secondary burial. Chin You-di recovered 50 to 60 burial contexts and Glover's later seasons about 50 more. Most of the interments were secondary, placed in a single large pit and perhaps on one occasion, and some bronze vessels are incomplete, as though parts had been left where the body first lay. Chin identified three discrete burial clusters which he took for lineage groups, and Glover could not find them. Cameron identified cotton, hemp and wild banana among eleven surviving textile fragments, all of which had been preserved by contact with metal, and concluded that every fibre represented was exotic to the site. Sharada Srinivasan compares the knobbed and ringed bowls with vessels from Nilgiri cairns in southern India.
Lang Kamnan Cave, at Khao Takotone near Ban Thung Nakharat in Mueang district, was occupied in the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Rasmi Shoocongdej reports deer, wild cattle or buffalo, rodents, reptiles and large quantities of land snails, no domesticated plants or animals, and no marked change in subsistence between the two periods. She reads the cave as one of many short-lived camps of mobile foragers, used at least in the wet season. No pig bone was recovered there, unlike the nearby Heap and Talu caves and Ban Kao. Guano diggers and looters had disturbed the front of the cave before excavation.
Tham Ongbah, in the upper reaches of the Khwae Yai River, commands a source of lead ore. Higham describes boat-shaped coffins cut from local hardwood with birds' heads at each end, buried with glass and stone beads, bronze ornaments, iron weapons and six bronze drums. He takes the drums to have reached the cave through indirect exchange from Vietnam, and their presence as a measure of local demand for prestige goods. Stark reports more than ninety coffins from the cave, and Sørensen's reading of the assemblage as that of a local chieftain or a lineage group. She adds that if the drums were made in northern Vietnam and traded in, the evidence shows long-distance exchange and differential access to resources rather than craft specialisation in this region.
Nicolas Revire points to an early devotional image of Śiva or Viṣṇu from Kanchanaburi, and another from Ratchaburi, as evidence against the view that the western half of the central plain was exclusively Buddhist in the Dvaravati period. Supitchar Jindawattanaphum reports a sword said to have been recovered from the Mae Klong in the province. It is a long single-edged blade with a squared tip and a ring at the end of the hilt, which she assigns to the Dvaravati period and derives from the Chinese ring-pommel sword.
The early site of Phong Tuek, in Tha Maka district, has been assessed as one of at least three early urban sites on the Mae Klong. It has no moat and seemingly no city wall, which distinguishes it from the moated towns of the central plain. Five quadrilateral brick structures have been recorded there. The largest of them was named a "vihara" in 1928, and that name has carried a claim about the building's function ever since.
Archaeological remains found in Kanchanaburi date back to the 4th century, with evidence of trade with surrounding regions at that time. Very little is known about the historical Khmer influence in Kanchanaburi, but Prasat Muang Sing, one of the country's most well-known Khmer sites, provides evidence of their occupation. The site has been identified with Śrī Jayasiṃhapurī, one of the cities named in the Preah Khan inscription of 1191. The argument is that the list runs in rough geographical order, and so points to the Mueang Sing of this province rather than to Singburi. Maxwell's edition of the inscription identifies none of the twenty-three places in the list. It also separates the Jayasiṃhapurī of the list from Jayasiṃhavatī, a different name standing on one of the roads. Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit place Prasat Muang Sing among the settlements in the Angkorian idiom that appeared on the fringes of the Chao Phraya plain in this period, on the route west by the Three Pagodas Pass. They caution that the spread of those styles has sometimes been read as waves of conquest without corroborating evidence of military or administrative power. The Preah Khan inscription itself lists roads east to Champa and north-west to Vimāya with rest houses along them, but names no road running west from Angkor. It names a third route as well, a circuit through Jayavatī, Jayasiṃhavatī, Jayavāravatī, Jayarājagiri and Suvīrapurī, carrying 44 of its 121 buildings. Thomas Maxwell, who edited the text, locates none of the five and gives the circuit no direction. He also reads the buildings as fire houses rather than rest houses, the inscription calling them vahnigṛha.
Little was recorded about Kanchanaburi before the reign of King Rama I. Some historians hold that the province mattered strategically in the Ayutthaya period, because it lay on the invasion route from Burma. In 1982 human and elephant skeletons and swords were found in Phanom Thuan district. That led to speculation that the battle of King Naresuan against the Burmese crown prince was fought there, rather than at Don Chedi district in Suphanburi province, where it is usually placed.
Most foreigners are mainly aware of Kanchanaburi's recent history with the Burma Railway. During the Japanese occupation of Thailand in 1942, both allied POWs and Asian labourers were ordered by the Japanese to build a Thailand-Burma railway. Eventually, more than 100,000 people (16,000 allied POWs and 90,000 local Asian labourers) died from horrific working conditions.
Geography The province is in the west of Thailand, 129 km from Bangkok, and covers a total area of approximately . It is the country's third largest province, after Nakhon Ratchasima and Chiang Mai. Topographically, it is covered with timber and evergreen forests. The total forest area is or 61.5 percent of provincial area. The district covers the source valleys of the rivers Kwae Yai and Kwae Noi ("River Kwai"), which merge at Kanchanaburi city to form the Mae Klong River. The neighboring provinces are (clockwise, from the north) Tak, Uthai Thani, Suphan Buri, Nakhon Pathom, and Ratchaburi. In the west it borders Kayin State, Mon State, and the Tanintharyi Region of Myanmar. Bong Ti is a transnational border crossing point, which is expected to gain in importance if the planned Dawei deepwater port project goes ahead, along with a highway and a railway line between Bangkok and the port.
National parks Seven of the nine national parks in the mountainous areas of the Tenasserim Hills from region 3 (Ban Pong), Phu Toei and Thai Prachan national parks are not in Kanchanaburi province, form protected areas in Kanchanaburi province.(visitors in fiscal year 2024) Khuean Srinagarindra National Park (70,980) Khao Laem National Park (48,599) Thong Pha Phum National Park (123,285) Lam Khlong Ngu National Park (6,026) Erawan National Park (519,235) Sai Yok National Park (67,698) Chaloem Rattanakosin National Park (27,715)
Wildlife sanctuaries Two of three wildlife sanctuaries from region 3 (Ban Pong), Mae Nam Phachi is not in Kanchanaburi province, are the protected areas of Kanchanaburi province. Thung Yai Naresuan WestWildlife Sanctuary Salak Phra Wildlife Sanctuary
Climate Kanchanaburi province has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classification Aw). Winters are dry and very warm. Temperatures rise until April, which is very hot with the average daily maximum at . The monsoon season runs from May through October, with heavy rain and somewhat cooler temparatures during the day, although nights remain warm.
Symbols The seal of the province shows the three stupas on Bantadthong Mountain. They give the name to the mountain pass to Myanmar, called "Three Pagodas Pass".
The provincial flower is the night-flowering jasmine (Nyctanthes arbortristis). The provincial tree is the Moulmein lancewood (Homalium tomentosum). The provincial aquatic animal is the Jullien's golden carp (Probarbus jullieni).
The provincial motto is "The ancient province. The (Three) Pagodas Pass Checkpoint, Gems of Kan, Bridge on the River Kwai. Source of minerals and waterfalls."
Demographics Population Population history of Kanchanaburi province is as follows: 1947 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2011 2020 140,164 233,000 321,000 518,927 697,750 734,394 838,914 891,976
Religion There are total 613 Theravada Buddhist temples in the province. 79 in Mueang Kanchanaburi, 68 in Lao Khwan, 68 in Sai Yok, 59 in Thong Pha Phum, 55 in Tha Muang,46 in Tha Maka, 43 in Bo Phloi, 40 in Phanom Thuan, 37 in Si Sawat, 36 in Nong Prue, 32 in Dan Makham Tia,32 in Huai Krachao, 18 in Sangkhla Buri.
There are 36 Christian churches and seven Mosques.
Administration Provincial administration Kanchanaburi is divided into 13 districts (amphoe). The districts are further divided into 107 subdistricts (tambon).
No. District Thai Pop. Subd. Villages 1 Mueang Kanchanaburi เมืองกาญจนบุรี 168,541 15 102 2 Sai Yok ไทรโยค 66,733 7 57 3 Bo Phloi บ่อพลอย 57,176 9 80 4 Si Sawat ศรีสวัสดิ์ 26,857 6 33 5 Tha Maka ท่ามะกา 131,797 17 154 6 Tha Muang ท่าม่วง 109,000 13 119 7 Thong Pha Phum ทองผาภูมิ 71,315 7 45 8 Sangkhla Buri สังขละบุรี 54,459 3 21 9 Phanom Thuan พนมทวน 52,319 12 103 10 Lao Khwan เลาขวัญ 58,587 7 90 11 Dan Makham Tia ด่านมะขามเตี้ย 33,736 4 41 12 Nong Prue หนองปรือ 31,732 3 43 13 Huai Krachao ห้วยกระเจา 34,098 4 73 Total 896,351 107 961
Local government As of December 2024 there are: one Kanchanaburi provincial administrative organization - PAO () and 46 municipal (thesaban) areas in the province. Mueang Kanchanaburi, Pak Phraek and Tha Ruea Phra Thaen are town municipalities (thesaban mueang) and 43 are subdistrict municipalities (thesaban tambon). Town municipality District Pop. Pak Phraek Mueang 28,590 Mueang Kanchanaburi Mueang 24,624 Tha Ruea Phra Thaen Tha Maka 10,357