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History of Nakhon Ratchasima


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Archeological evidence suggests that there were two ancient towns that later became named Sema and Nakhon Raj which currently are in Sung Noen district, 32 km west of present-day Nakhonratchasima (Korat). Nakhon means capital, Raj means kingdom or state in Sanskrit. See also Bai Sema.

Prior to the fourteenth century, the area of Nakhon Ratchasima was under the Khmer empire suzerainty (known in Khmer as Nokor Reach Seyma / Nokor Reach Borei, and Koreach) while another town to the north, Phimai, was likely more important.

Narai, king of the Ayutthaya from 1656 to 1688, ordered a new city built, to serve as a stronghold on Ayutthaya's northeastern frontier. Nakhon Ratchasima was subsequently mentioned in Siamese chronicles and legal documents as a 'second - class' city of the kingdom. A governor was named to rule the city as a dynasty.

In the aftermath of the final phase of the Ayutthaya kingdom that had ended with its complete destruction by the Burmese in 1767, a son of King Boromakot, attempted to set himself up the ruler of Phimai holding sway over Korat and other eastern provinces. King Taksin of the successor Thonburi Kingdom (1768–1782) sent two of his generals, the brothers Thong Duang and Boonma to defeat the prince, who was then executed in 1768. Thong Duang became King Rama I of the kingdom in 1782, and Korat became his strategic stronghold on the northeastern frontier supervising Lao and Khmer tributary states.

In 1826, Vientiane King Chao Anouvong perceiving Siam as weakened, attacked Korat in the Laotian Rebellion against King Rama III that was to rage on for two years.[2] Lady Mo, the wife of the deputy governor at the time, is credited with having freed the city from Anouvong's army, and has been honored with a statue in the center of downtown Korat. The old, walled town east of the monument was designed and built by a French engineer who is believed to be the one who also built Naraimaharaj Palace in Lopburi. The
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