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History
Trang is the word derived from Malaysian language
that means "dawn", also known as "Thap-Thiang"
or "Town of the dawn" as an ancient
name. Trang was once the vibrant port for foreign
trading. Legend has it that ships from other countries
always landed at Trang port at dawn, explaining
then how Trang got its name.
Initially, the center of the province is believed
to locate at Baan Kaun Thani according to the
evident record ascribed by one of the emissaries
from the West sent to Trang in 1824.
In the reign of King Rama V, he made a visit
to the area and found that the city was considerably
deteriorated. He thus had a vision of restoring
and establishing Trang to be the trading city
due to its proper location. Then he assigned Phraya
Ratsadanupradit Maissara Phakdi, to govern the
province. It was him who brought the rubber from
Malaysia and planted it here before anywhere else
in the southern Thailand. As that, the rubber
becomes now the important commodity of Thailand.
Under his governance, Phraya Pakdi had promoted
Trang to be the center port of the trade route
in the region. At that time, in this region, there
are two major routes of transportation, i.e. land
and sea route. Kantang, one of the six districts
of Trang province, was served as the main port
of the Penang-Phuket trade route. For that reason,
Kantang was the capital of the province for several
years.
Not until 1915 that King Rama VI viewed Kantang
as an inappropriate site to be the capital of
Trang Province. Apart from suffering from the
annual flood, Kantang was prone to naval invasion.
Associated with his vision in establishing the
city on the other more proper location, the capital
of Trang province was then moved to Thap-Thiang
sub-district and became the capital of present-
Trang province ever since.
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Trang
