Phrae province
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" align="right"\n! colspan="2" align=center bgcolor="#DEFFAD"|Statistics\n|-\n||Capital:||Phrae\n|-\n||Area:||valign=top|6,538.6
km²Ranked 32nd\n|-\n||Inhabitants:||valign=top|492,561
(2000)Ranked 48th\n|-\n||
Pop. density:||valign=top|75 inh./km²
Ranked 57nd\n|-\n||
ISO 3166-2:||TH-54\n|-\n!colspan="2" align=center bgcolor="#DEFFAD"|Map\n|-\n|colspan="2" align=center|
\n|}\n
Phrae (
Thai แพร่) is one of the northern
provinces (
changwat) of
Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from north clockwise)
Phayao,
Nan,
Uttaradit,
Sukhothai and
Lampang.
Geography
\nPhrae is located in the valley of the river Yom.
History
\nThe 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
\n{|\n|valign=top|
\n|valign=top|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).\n|}\nAdministrative divisions
\nThe province is subdivided in 8 districts (Amphoe). These are further subdivided into 78 communes (tambon) and 645 villages (mubaan).\n{|\n!|Amphoe\n|--- valign=top\n||\n#Mueang Phrae\n#Rong Kwang\n#Long\n#Sung Men\n||\n\n- Den Chai\n
- Song\n
- Wang Chin\n
- Nong Muang Kai\n
\n|}\nExternal links
\n*Province page from the Tourist Authority of Thailand\n*Golden Jubilee Network province guide
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