Songkhla ( th, สงขลา, ), also known as Singgora or Singora ( Pattani Malay: ซิงกอรอ), is a city ('' thesaban nakhon'') in Songkhla Province of southern

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, near the border with

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. Songkhla lies south of

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...

and as of 2020 had a population of 61,758. Despite being smaller than the neighboring city Hat Yai, Songkhla is the capital of Songkhla Province as well as the Mueang Songkhla District (Songkhla town district). Together with Hat Yai, Songkhla is part of the Greater Hat Yai-Songkhla Metropolitan Area (a conurbation with a population of around 800,000), the third largest metropolitan area in Thailand. At the opening of Songkhla Lake to the

Gulf of Thailand The Gulf of Thailand, also known as the Gulf of Siam, is a shallow inlet in the southwestern South China Sea, bounded between the southwestern shores of the Indochinese Peninsula and the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. It is around in l ...

, Songkhla is a fishing town and also an important

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

. It is the major seaport on the east side of the Isthmus of Kra.

History

The name ''Songkhla'' is the Thai variant of "Singgora" ( Jawi: سيڠڬورا); its original name means 'the city of lions' in Malay (not to be confused with Singapura). This refers to a lion-shaped mountain near the city of Songkhla. Archaeological excavations on the isthmus between Lake Songkhla and the sea reveal that in the 10th through the 14th century, this was a major urbanized area, and a center of international maritime trade, in particular with Quanzhou in China. The long Sanskrit name of the state that existed there has been lost; its short Sanskrit name was ''Singhapura'' ('Lion City') (not to be confused with Singapura), a city state. The short vernacular name was ''Satingpra'', coming from the Mon-Khmer ''sting''/''steng''/''stang'' (meaning 'river') and the Sanskrit ''pura'' ('city'). The ruins of the ancient port city of Satingpra are just few kilometers north of Songkhla. It was one of the most important trading centers of the Tambralinga Kingdom. Archaeological digs and investigations conducted toward the end of the 20th century testify the existence of a fortified citadel protected by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

and a quadrangular surrounding wall made of brick. A sophisticated system of canals connected the sea to the Songkhla Lake permitting the circulations of ships. The excavations brought to light artifacts of great historical and artistic value. On 8 December 1941 local time, the

Imperial Japanese army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor ...

landed in Songkhla, invading Thailand. Because of the International Date Line, this actually occurred hours before the 7 December (Hawaii time)

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawa ...

, making it the first major action of the Pacific War. The Japanese forces then moved south towards Perlis and

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Ma ...

as part of the Malayan campaign which culminated in the capture of Singapore. Since 2003, Songhkla has been affected by separatist insurgencies in neighboring Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala. The municipality's mayor, Peera Tantiserane, was murdered in Songkhla in 2012.

Climate

Songkhla has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Am''). Temperatures are very warm to hot throughout the year with only minor variation. There is a short dry season in February and March; the rest of the year is wet, with especially heavy rainfall from October to December.

Population

The majority of the population is

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

with a large proportion of Muslims, especially in the rural areas near the

n border. These Muslims speak the Yawi language, a language closely related to Malay, which has some Thai influence, especially in loan words borrowed from the Thai language. Songkhla's district has five administrative organizations (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบล). Songkhla takes up the entire Bo Yang district.

Gallery

File:Songkhla mermaid.jpg, Songkhla mermaid File:Tinsulanonda Bridge 1.jpg, Tinsulanonda Bridge File:Songkhla Sea Port.jpg, Songkhla seaport File:Songkhla Lak Mueang.jpg, Songkhla Lak Mueang

References

External links