Phuket

Phuket (p`kĭt), island, 206 sq mi (534 sq km), a province of Thailand, in the Andaman Sea, off the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. The town of Phuket is the capital. Flat, with isolated hills, the island was one of Thailand's chief tin-mining regions, but now resort tourism is the main industry. Phuket also produces mainly rubber, coconuts, and pepper. The population is mainly Chinese and Thai; the Chinese mined tin there since ancient times.

Phuket town was founded in the 1st cent. B.C. by colonists from India. European merchants began trading there in the 16th cent. The island, contested by the Siamese and the Burmese during their 18th-century wars, was finally incorporated into Thailand in the 19th cent. Phuket was known to the Malays as Ujong Salang (Cape Salang) and to early European voyagers as Junkceylon. In the 1980s and 1990s it experienced rapid development as tourism expanded. Parts of the island's coast were devastated by the Dec., 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami.

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Phuket

1. an island and province of S Thailand, in the Andaman Sea: mainly flat; suffered badly in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. Area: 534 sq. km (206 sq. miles)

2. the chief town of the island of Phuket; a popular tourist resort

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Phuket 

(Puket), a city and port in Thailand, on the southern coast of Phuket Island, which is in the Andaman Sea off the western coast of the Malay Peninsula. Capital of Phuket Province. Population, 28,200 (1960).

Phuket is one of the surrounding region’s main mining and tin-smelting centers. Tin and rubber are exported. There is fishing.

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Phuket 

(Puket), an island in the Andaman Sea, off the western coast of the Malay Peninsula, in the southern extension of the Phuket Range. Part of Thailand. Area, 801 sq km. Population, 75,600 (1970, estimate). Lowlands and hills predominate, with elevations to 516 m. There are tropical forests, as well as coconut, rubber, and pepper plantations on the island. There are also large deposits of tin. The main city is Phuket.

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Phuket 

(Puket), a mountain range in southern Thailand, on the Malay Peninsula. The Phuket Range is approximately 250 km long, with elevations to 1,465 m. It is composed of granites, gneisses, crystalline schists, and limestones. Deeply dissected, it splits in places into individual massifs. The range is covered with evergreen tropical forests.