{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" align="right" ! colspan="2" align=center bgcolor="#DEFFAD"|Statistics |- ||Capital:||Phrae |- ||Area:||valign=top|6,538.6 km²
Ranked 32nd |- ||Inhabitants:||valign=top|492,561 (2000)
Ranked 48th |- ||Pop. density:||valign=top|75 inh./km²
Ranked 57nd |- ||ISO 3166-2:||TH-54 |- !colspan="2" align=center bgcolor="#DEFFAD"|Map |- |colspan="2" align=center| |}

Phrae (Thai แพร่) is one of the northern provinces (changwat) of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from north clockwise) Phayao, Nan, Uttaradit, Sukhothai and Lampang.

Table of contents
1 Geography
2 History
3 Symbols
4 Administrative divisions
5 External links

Geography

Phrae is located in the valley of the river Yom.

History

The history of Phrae dates back to the Haripunchai kingdom of the Mon. It became part of the kingdom Lannathai in 1443, when king Tilokaraj was on an expedition to capture Nan.

Symbols

According to legend the two cities of Phrae and Nan were once ruled by brothers. When they met to divide the land between them the one from Phrae rode on a horse, the one from Nan on a buffalo to the meeting point on top of a mountain. Hence Phrae uses a horse in their seal, while Nan uses a buffalo. When the provincial government proposed the seal in 1940, the Fine Arts Department suggested to add some historic building to the seal additional to the horse, thus it now have the pagoda of Phra Tat Cho Hae on the back of the horse. This temple is located about 9 kilometers south-east of the city Phrae.

Provincial flower and tree is the Burmese Almondwood (Chukrasia tabularis).

Administrative divisions

Amphoe
(districts)
  1. Mueang Phrae
  2. Rong Kwang
  3. Long
  4. Sung Men
  1. Den Chai
  2. Song
  3. Wang Chin
  4. Nong Muang Kai

External links