A beautiful border town, southern most on Siam
" is the slogan of Yala province".
The word "yala" come from the folk word "yalor",
meaning "fishing net" becuase at the original site of
the town, Yalor, there was a mountian shaped like
a fishing net. It was a low land and people earned their
living by using fishing nets to catch fish, Eventually, many
new towns were set up one after another until finally it
moved to Nibong, which is its present location. (Nibong
means a knid of tree called "laocha-on")
Yala used to be a part of pattani, which was a coony of
the Thai Kingdom during the Sukhothai Regime. In the year
1757, after Ayudhaya had lost to Burma, all its colonies
in this area declared themselves independent. It was not
until the reign of King Rama I that Krom Phra Rajwang
Baworn reclaim Pattani. Yala was sent with the Royal troops
to 1808 when King Rama I ordered the division of Pattani into
7 towns. They were Pattani, Saiburi, Nongjik, Yaring, Ra-ngae,
Raman and Yala. As for Yala, Tuan Yalor became Praya Lor,
its governor. There had been many governors in sucession before
Yala became a province of Thailand and that was before the
announcement of the cancellation of the division into regions
according to the order of the Kingdom of Siam in 1993.
Yala is the southernmost province of Thailand with and area of
4,521 square kilometres. It is 1,055 kms. from Bangkok by rail
and 1,440 kms. by road Its border is connected Songkhla, Pattani
and Narathiwat. It is the only one of the 14 southern province that
is not next to the sea. Yala is mostly mountainous and coverd with
forests buthas very little flat land. It is divided into 6 district : Muang,
Betong, Bannang Star, Yaha, Raman and 2 sub-districts : Kabang
and Krongpinang.
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