อ่านภาษาไทย
If you come to visit Phuket Province, if you want to travel with real understanding, take some time to visit the museum that Museum Siam has painstakingly studied and compiled information to create an exhibition, that is Phuket Museum.
The museum is located in 2 old buildings, which are very important for the old town of Phuket. It can be called an important symbol of Phuket. That is, the building that used to be the Talat Yai Police Station (the building with the clock tower, called the "City Observation Tower") and the Chartered Bank Building, which is a bank in Phuket that was built since the reign of King Rama V!
The police station was built after the bank because it was built for the safety of the bank.
Later, Charter Bank (or Chartered) merged with Standard Bank to become Standard Chartered Bank today.
Phuket Province is in the world of international trade. It has been like this since the beginning. When it first appeared in history, Phuket Province was not far from the Portuguese trading station. Therefore, Phuket people have been trading with foreigners for a long time. Especially in the era of tin mining, every nation wanted to come to Phuket.
It is said that if there were no tin ore and Hokkien Chinese, Phuket might not have grown into an international city like today. It might be a quiet province like Phang Nga, Trang, or Satun.
For the first building, which is the old police station building, it used to be a tourist information center. Now it has become a part of the Phuket Museum, called Phuket Nakhara, which the exhibition will take viewers back to the origin of Phuket, from the era of building the city to the era of tin mining, the era of rebuilding the city for the 2nd time in the time of Phraya Ratsadanupradit (Kho Sim Bee Na Ranong), the superintendent of Phuket Province, until it became a tourist city of the world like today.
And if anyone wants to know where the Japanese spy's house was during World War II in the old town of Phuket, come and find the answer in Phuket Nakhara.
Cross over to the other side of the road for the Peranakan Exhibition, which focuses on displaying and telling the cultural stories of the Baba Yaya Chinese group, which refers to the descendants of Hokkien Chinese born in Phuket, which has a cultural style that blends Chinese and local Phuket cultures, including lifestyle, food, clothing, and jewelry.
Both museums on either side of the road take no more than 1 hour to visit. It is considered another interesting City Community Museum.
