Phuket is the largest island in Thailand. It lies 550 miles (885 kilometers) south of Bangkok in the Andaman Sea. Phuket, formerly called Talang, is connected to the mainland by the Sarasin Bridge. The island is administered as a province of Thailand. The port of Phuket serves as one of the country’s major outlets to the Indian Ocean.
The local occupations include farming, tin mining, and fishing. Tourism is also important on the island, and Phuket is popularly known as the Pearl of the South. Phuket is a favorite vacation resort with its own international airport. The island offers visitors a varied and striking landscape with luxuriant forests, impressive cliffs, and vast sweeping beaches of both rock and sand. Many scuba divers are attracted to the surrounding waters.
The town of Phuket is geared toward the tourist industry with souvenir shops, craft markets, restaurants, and motion-picture theaters. Major attractions on the island include a marine biological center; the spectacular limestone caves, grottos, and columns of Phangnga Bay; Phra Taew National Park; and the Temple of the Golden Buddha. An important colorful event in Phuket is the Chinese Vegetarian Festival, which takes place in autumn. The festival marks the end of a fast from eating meat and includes displays of fire-walking and climbing knife-edged ladders.
In December 2004, a powerful undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean near the Indonesian island of Sumatra generated a series of large ocean waves called a tsunami. The tsunami’s towering waves killed about 8,000 people along Thailand’s southwestern coast and caused enormous property damage. The Phuket area was especially hard hit.
