In recorded times it was called the 'Ban Thai Samor',
and was one of twelve towns that used, before people were widely
literate, the monkey for their standard. At that time, c. 1200 A.D.,
Krabi was tributary to the Kingdom of Ligor, a city on the Kra
Peninsula's east coast better known today as Nakhon Si Thammarat. At the
start of the Rattanakosin period, about 200 years ago, when the capital
was finally settled at Bangkok, an elephant kraal was established in
Krabi by order of Chao Phraya Nakorn (Noi), the governor of Nakhon Si
Thammarat, which was by then a part of the Thai Kingdom. He sent his
vizier, the Phra Palad, to oversee this task, which was to ensure a
regular supply of elephants for the larger town. So followers many
emigrated in the steps of the Phra Palad that soon Krabi had a large
community in three different boroughs : Pakasai, Khlong Pon, and Pak
Lao. In 1872, King Chulalongkorn graciously elevated these to town
status, called Krabi, a word that preserves in its meaning the
monkey symbolism of the old standard. The town's first governor was
Luang Thep Sena, though it continued a while as a dependency of Nakhon
Si Thammarat. This was changed in 1875, when Krabi was raised to a
fourth-level town in the old system of Thai government.
Administrators then reported directly to the central government in
Bangkok, and Krabi's history as a unique entity separated from the other
provinces, had begun.
During the present reign, the corps of civil servants, the
merchants, and the population generally of Krabi and nearby
provinces have together organized construction of a royal residence at
Laem Hang Nak Cape for presentation to His Majesty the King. This lies
thirty kilometers to the west of Krabi Town on the Andaman coast.
