Friday, April 3, 2009

Provincial symbol of Prachuap Khiri Khan

The prime symbol of the province Prachuap Khiri Khan, which is found in its seal as well as in many other places, is a small pavilion located in a cave. Quoting the Kanchanapisek website (sadly only possible via archive.org as the website is mostly empty for some years already and no webmaster notices it):
Prachuap Khiri Khan Province has two places on its seal to indicate its historical importance, namely Kuha Karuhas Pavillion and Lak Isle. The former was built in 1890 on King Rama V's visit within Praya Nakorn Cave, Samroiyord Sub-district and is still there to this day. The latter is located in Prachuap Bay, Muang District.
I could visit this pavilion in 2005, and while the pavilion itself is not that impressive, for me the location in the cave illuminated by the sun through the partially collapsed roof of the cave made much more impression than its historic meaning. Thus in the picture I tried to catch the surroundings of the pavilion as well - just too bad that the sun did not shine on the pavilion itself at the time of day I was there.

This pavilion can be found on most of the symbolic items for Prachuap Khiri Khan. Most of all it is of course in the provincial seal, and derived from this also the scouting emblem for the province.

However for the car license plate shown below, only the landscape around that cave is displayed (Gazette). And also a bit surprising, the TAO Sam Roi Yot which contains the cave does not have it on its symbol either.

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