Sisaket Province
Si Sa Ket (
Thai ศรีสะเกษ) is one of the
north-eastern provinces (
changwat) of
Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from west clockwise)
Surin,
Roi Et,
Yasothon and
Ubon Ratchathani. To the south it borders
Cambodia.
The province is located in the valley of the
Mun river, a tributary of the
Mekong. To the south of the province is the
Dângrêk mountain chain, which also forms the boundary to Cambodia.
Khao Phra Wihan National Park covers an area of 130 km² of the Dângrêk mountains in the southeast of the province. It was established on March 20, 1998. It is named after the Khmer temple
Prasat Preah Vihear (Anglicized in Thailand as Prasat Khao Phra Wihan), located in Cambodia, which had been the issue of boundary dispute between the two countries and was thus unaccessible for most of recent history.
At the boundary survey for the
Franco-Siamese treaty of 1907 the temple was left on the Cambodian side, even though the boundary in other parts followed the
watershed. In
1962 the dispute was officially settled by the
International Court of Justice, confirming the 1907 boundary.
Due to the many ruins found in the province the area must have been an important settlement already in the times of the
Khmer empire in the
12th century. According to local tradition it was called
Sri Nakorn Lamduan (
Nakorn is a derivative of the Khmer word
Nokor) at that time, later it became known as
Khukhan. Khukhan was made a town during the reign of King
Boromaratcha III. In the northern area controlled by Khukhan
Lao began to settle, which in
1786 was made the separate town Sisaket dependend on Khukhan. 1904 the town Sisaket was renamed Khukhan, while the old town got the name Huai Nua.
1912 Monthon Udon Thani was created, which took over most of the administration of the area. When in
1933 the monthon were dissolved, the province Khukhan was again directly administrated from Bangkok. In
1938 the town and province was renamed to Sisaket, and the district which contained Huai Nua got back the name Khukhan.
30% of the population are of the
Khmer speaking minority.
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Provincial seal |
|The provincial seal shows the Prasat Hin Ban Samo, a Khmer temple about 1000 years old, located in the Prang Ku district.
The symbol flower and tree of the province is the
White Cheesewood (
Melodorum fruticosum). The six leaves of the flower refer to the six original districts of the province - Kukan, Kantharalak, Uthumphon Phisai, Kanthararom, Rasi Salai and Khun Han.
