Southern · Thailand
Phatthalung · พัทลุง
Thale Noi waterbirds, buffalo-head cliff, shadow puppet capital.
- Region
- Southern
- Population
- 522,000
- Area
- 3,424 km²
- Stories filed
- 0
About Phatthalung
History
Phatthalung is one of the ancestral homes of southern Thailand's two great classical performing arts: nang talung leather shadow puppetry and the Manora dance drama, which spread from this province's courts across the peninsula over several centuries. The province's name derives from a geological feature — Khao Ok Thalu, a limestone hill whose summit has a natural perforation visible for miles, meaning \"hill of the hole-in-the-chest.\" Its districts have been continuously cultivated since the Srivijaya period, their rice paddies irrigated by water channels that were old when the Manora dances were young.
Landscape & geography
Narrow and elongated, Phatthalung is sandwiched between Songkhla Lake on the east and the Banthat mountain range on the west. Rice plains and lotus-filled wetland fill the middle; Thale Noi waterbird sanctuary, in the province's northern corner bordering Nakhon Si Thammarat, is the largest protected waterbird habitat in Thailand and one of the most important in Southeast Asia. The Banthat ridge reaches over 1,200 metres at Khao Banthat, whose forested trails are cool and empty in all seasons.
Why visit
Thale Noi waterbird sanctuary is unmissable for birders and photographers — at dawn in February the lake surface is covered with open-billed storks, purple swamp hens, and painted storks roosting in lotus beds, reached by a longtail through pink blooms. A shadow-puppet workshop visit in Phatthalung town is easy to arrange; the hide puppets take months to carve. The Khao Ok Thalu mountain and the twin-peak limestone landscape of Khao Hua Taek are short climbs with outstanding views. Phatthalung is quiet, under-touristed, and an excellent half-day stop between Hat Yai and Trang.
Stories from Phatthalung
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