Phraya Ratsadanupradit Mahison Phakdi

Focus Point 1

The museum in Trang.

Phraya Ratsadanupradit Mahison Phakdi was a past ruler of Trang. In 1899, Phakdi came back from the British Malaysia with rubber saplings and planted them in Thailand. He realised that rubber plantations had good results in Malaysia, so he planned to grow rubber trees as the economic crops for the villagers in Thailand. Unfortunately, in Malaysia at that time, plantation owners were very protective of their plants and would not allow Phakdi to take away seedlings. Phakdi was successful in bringing back samplings instead from Indonesia when he saw more successes there.

In 1901, Trang was the first ever place in Thailand that had rubber trees planted, and now in Trang there is only one tree remaining from the para, which is 115 years old. This success has spread all around Thailand and came to Phuket. 

In Phuket, the first rubber plantations were introduced in 1901. Their method was to wrap the roots with cotton and newspaper to let them grow whilst travelling. This was how Phraya Ratsadanupradit Mahison Phakdi was able to bring the rubber samplings to Phuket.

The lifelike was model of  Phakdi.

          Now, Phraya Ratsadanupradit Mahison Phakdi has made history in Thailand. He is known as the "Father of Rubber." There is a museum set up in Trang to commemorate Phakdi. It has a real life size wax statue of him and the museum contains his personal items also it contains photographs of his mansion. In addition, in some of the provinces of Thailand, there are some streets named after him. For example, Ratsada street. This has conveyed that even after Phakdi's death, Thailand respected Phraya's work and his help to Thailand's economy. 

In Phuket, there was originally deliberations on whether they should embark on the risk of starting up the rubber tree plantations. However, now, rubber plantations are a huge part of Thailand's reliable income and economy. This relates to the world, as the produce that is manufactured from the rubber plantations, were and still are traded with the world. Without Thailand's source of rubber industry, the world would not be where it is today. 

Overall, for Phuket to develop economically like it has since rubber plantations were first brought to Phuket, it was essential for rubber plantations to be set up and succeed in its work. If it wasn't for the British Malaysia, then Phraya Ratsadanupradit Mahison Phakdi wouldn't of been able to make this mark in Thailand's history and Thailand, especially Phuket, would not be the way it is today.