Most historians identify the Tambralinga kingdom with a precursor of Nakhon Si Thammarat. During the late-1st and early-2nd millennium BC, Tai peoples expanded in mainland Southeast Asia. By the 13th century, they made Nakhon Si Thammarat one of their mueang. The exact circumstances of the Tai taking over the earlier Buddhist and Indianised kingdom at this location remain unclear. The Ramkhamhaeng stele of 1283 lists Nakhon Si Thammarat as the southernmost tributary kingdom of Sukhothai, probably ruled by a relative of King Ram Khamhaeng. Nakhon Si Thammarat's Buddhist Theravada tradition was a model for the whole Sukhothai kingdom. Exemplary for the Southeast AsianMandala model, the dependency towards Sukhothai was only personal, not institutional. Therefore, after Ram Khaemhaeng's death, Nakhon Si Thammarat regained its independence and became the dominant Thai mueang on the Malay peninsula.
Naksat cities
According to the 16th-century Southern Thai Chronicles of Nakhon Si Thammarat and the Chronicles of Phra That Nakhon, Nakhon Si Thammarat was surrounded by a chain of twelve inter-linked cities, or Mueang, on the Malay Peninsula, called the Naksat cities. According to these accounts, the cities acted as an outer shield, surrounding the capital Nakhon Si Thammarat, and were connected by land so that help could be sent from one city to another in the event of surprise attacks. The Thai term naksat refers to the lunar calendar system with a duodenary cycle of years , based on the Chinese zodiac, with each year being associated with a particular animal. M.C. Chand Chirayu Rajani identified eleven of the twelve cities and their associated zodiac emblems with the following locations on the Malay peninsula: Narathiwat, Pattani, Kelantan, Kedah, Phattalung, Trang, Chumphon, Krabi, Tha Chana, Phuket, Kraburi. The exact location of Mueang Pahang, identified with the Rabbit, is unknown. However, there is no historic evidence that Nakhon Si Thammarat actually controlled these cities. Other reports from that period rarely describe Ligor as having any special role on the Malay peninsula. The account in the chronicles seems to reflect the Siamese claims to suzerainty over the Malay regions of the south during the mid-Ayutthaya period.
Ayutthaya period
In the Old JavaneseDesawarnana document of 1365, the Majapahit kingdom recognised Nakhon Si Thammarat as belonging to Siam. The Palatine law of King Trailok dated 1468, listed Nakhon Si Thammarat as one of eight "great cities" belonging to the Ayutthaya kingdom. Nevertheless, it maintained its own dynasty and had vassal states of its own, which it mediated to Ayutthaya. Under king Naresuan it became instead a "first class province". However, the post of provincial governor was still quasi-hereditary and usually handed down from father to son within the old Nakhon Si Thammarat dynasty. It was the most important among Ayutthaya's southern provinces and enjoyed a primacy vis-à-vis the other provinces on the Malay Peninsula. Its role in overseas trade resulted in the province's substantial wealth and contributed to a high level of confidence and claim of autonomy in relation to the central power. During the Ayutthayan succession conflict of 1629, Nakhon Si Thammarat rebelled against the new king Prasat Thong. The usurper sent the influential Japanese adventurer Yamada Nagamasa with his mercenary force to quell the rebellion and made him governor and lord of Nakhon Si Thammarat for a short time. Another insurrection of Nakhon Si Thammarat against the capital took place after the Siamese revolution of 1688 when the local ruler refused to accept the accession of usurper king Phetracha.
Thonburi and Rattanakosin periods
After the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, Nakhon Si Thammarat again enjoyed a short period of independence, including its subordinate provinces on the Malay peninsula, but was subdued by Taksin in 1769 on his mission to reunite Siam. Under Rama I, the rank of the Lord of Nakhon Si Thammarat was demoted from a vassal ruler to a mere governor of a first-class province and his control over the Northern Malay sultanates was taken away, instead awarding them to the governor of Songkhla. Nakhon Si Thammarat was supervised by the Kalahom. In 1821 and 1831 however, kings Rama II and Rama III again tasked the governor of Nakhon Si Thammarat to quell rebellions in the Malay sultanate of Kedah.
Integration into the Siamese central state
With the Thesaphiban reform of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab at the end of the 19th century the kingdom was finally fully absorbed into Siam. A new administrative entity named monthon was created, each supervising several provinces. Monthon Nakhon Si Thammarat, established 1896, covered those areas on the east coast of the peninsula, i.e. the provinces Songkhla, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung.
