Phraek Si Racha (, ) 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.
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 to the south, is one such moated town. Remains at Phraek Si Racha itself, including those at Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phraya Phraek and Wat Tanod Lai, show that it too was a town. Karen Mudar's survey of moated settlements in the central plain gives the site an enclosure of 81 ha, later enlarged to 315 ha, making it one of the three largest on the plain and a regional centre in her four-level hierarchy, with twelve moated settlements assigned to it. A local-history account dates the settlement to about 2,500 years ago.
The site has been proposed as the centre of Chen Li Fu, a polity known from Chinese records of about 1200; another proposal places it in the Suphan Buri basin. and Walailak Songsiri place the seat in the Phraek Si Racha–Dong Khon area. Songsiri nevertheless qualifies the placement. Among the small towns running south from Phraek Si Racha to the Suphan and Tha Wa rivers, Phraek Si Racha is the one that does not continue from the Dvaravati period. Excavation has not established whether its occupation began under the Southern Song or the Yuan, while its rampart and moat are larger than those of nearby older square towns. Songsiri therefore proposes that the seat moved there from the smaller inland waterways.
The same local-history account states that the town is named in the Ram Khamhaeng Inscription as a tributary of the Sukhothai Kingdom. 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 Phraek Si Racha, following an older pattern of satellite cities in the four cardinal directions.
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.
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. 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.
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).
No. Name Thai1.Ban Thiang Thaeบ้านเที่ยงแท้2.Ban Tha Rabatบ้านท่าระบาตร3.Ban Tha Rabatบ้านท่าระบาตร4.Ban Tha Rabatบ้านท่าระบาตร5.Ban Chongบ้านช่อง6.Ban Wang Thongบ้านวังทอง7.Ban Don Aranyikบ้านดอนอรัญญิก8.Ban Phraek Si Rachaบ้านแพรกศรีราชา9.Ban Khaekบ้านแขก10.Ban Wat Phra Kaewบ้านวัดพระแก้ว11.Ban Wang Yaoบ้านวังยาว12.Ban Wang Yaoบ้านวังยาว13.Ban Pak Paoบ้านปักเป้า14.Ban Hua Taphanบ้านหัวตะพาน15.Ban Wat Kamphaengบ้านวัดกำแพง16.Ban Sa Mai Daengบ้านสระไม้แดง
Population As of December 2022, it has a total population of 14,586.
References