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Originally a cape jutting into the Andaman Sea, Phuket was an important trading post as it provided safe harbours to ships plying between India and China. It also became a major source of tin during the sixteenth century, attracting the first European traders and adding substantially to the revenue of the Thai Kingdom at Ayuthaya.
It was originally inhabited by indigenous tribes in the interior jungles and Chao Leh (sea gypies whose vocation was piracy and pearl fishing) along the coast. Whereas the tribals were totally displaced by the tin miniers, even today you can see some Chao Leh villages along the coast and in the smaller islands.
In the olden days, Phuket was known as Junk Ceylon to the Europeans, a corruption of the Malay Tanjung Salang meaning Cape Salang. The island was named Phuket much later when the administrative centre was moved to the mining town by that name.
Governed by the Sirivijaya Empire based in Sumatra before then, Phuket first became part of a Thai state during the thirteenth century when Thai armies from Sukhothai wrested control of the island.
In 1785, when Phuket was attacked by the Burmese, the wife of the recently deceased governor, Lady Chan, along with her sister Lady Muk, rallied the people and broke the Burmese siege. In recognition for their valiant deed, the King bestowed honorific titles on these two heroines. Their statues can be seen atop a monument at the roundabout a few kilometres north of Phuket City.
Covered in ancient rainforest, large areas of the island were cleared to make way for rubber plantations in the early 20th century, irreparably altering the landscape of the island.
The island saw its first tourists in the 1970s at Patong beach. A haven for backpackers then, Phuket's idyllic tropical beaches and clear warm waters attracted travellers from all over the world and in the mid-1970s Phuket had its airport. Tourism is island's main industry today, with over 3 million tourists visiting the island annually.
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