Si Racha ศรีราชา | |
|---|---|
| Si Racha Town Municipality | |
 View of Si Racha town taken from Wat Nong Pa Bua Thong Bangna | |
 Seal | |
 Interactive map of Si Racha | |
  Si Racha Location of Si Racha on the Gulf of Thailand | |
| Coordinates:13°10′26″N100°55′48″E / 13.174°N 100.930°E /13.174; 100.930 | |
| Country | Thailand |
| Province | Chonburi |
| District | Si Racha district |
| Government | |
| • Type | Town municipality |
| • Mayor | Chatchai Timkrachang |
| Area | |
| 4.058 km2 (1.567 sq mi) | |
| • Urban | 616.4 km2 (238.0 sq mi) |
| Population (2018)[1] | |
| 24,127 | |
| • Density | 5,946/km2 (15,400/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 327,172 |
| Registered residents only | |
| Time zone | UTC+7 (ICT) |
Si Racha[2] (Thai:ศรีราชา,pronounced[sǐːrāːt͡ɕʰāː]) is a subdistrict and town inThailand on the east coast of theGulf of Thailand, about 120 km (75 mi) southeast ofBangkok inSi Racha district,Chonburi province.
The town is the center of theSi Racha district, theninth-largest urban city area in Thailand. Si Racha is in the industrialEastern Seaboard zone, along withPattaya,Laem Chabang, andChonburi. It is also part of the Pattaya-Chonburi Metropolitan Area, aconurbation with a population of 999,092 people.
Si Racha is known as the birthplace of the popularhot sauce,Sriracha, which is named after the town.[3]
Si Racha used to be part of Bang Lamung district which it borders today to its south. In 1900 (B.E 2443) Field MarshalChao Phraya Surasak Montri came to the area of the modern town and built a sawmill under his company Sriracha Capital Company Limited. In 1903, Surasak Montri requested that the district capital of Bang Phra district be moved to Si Racha, which it did but retained its original name before becoming Si Racha district in 1917.[4]
The municipality was created as a subdistrict municipality (thesaban tambon) in 1945.[5] In 1995, the subdistrict municipality was upgraded to a town municipality (thesaban mueang).[6]
On 3 September 2023, an oil pipeline being used to fill an oil tanker off a jetty owned byThai Oil ruptured, causing an oil spill. The spill polluted the Gulf of Thailand with 50-70 m³, producing a 5 km slick. The spill is currently under the authority of the Pollution Control Department and the Marine Department. Thai Oil was later given permission to use 6,000 litres of dispersant on the slick.[7] As of 7 September 2023, the coral off the coast of islands in the gulf have been unaffected by the spill.[8]
Unrelated to the oil spill, on 8 September the waters off Si Racha experienced aplankton bloom caused by recent monsoons that had occurred across the country, causing the beaches up toBang Saen Beach to be covered by dead marine life, includingponyfishes,crabs,pufferfishes, andtilapias.[9][10]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(January 2018) |
TheThai-Japanese Association School Sriracha, aJapanese international school, is in Si Racha. It is an affiliate of theThai-Japanese Association School inBangkok.[11] Si Racha formerly housed the Sriracha-Pattaya Japanese Supplement School, aJapanese weekend school.[12]
Si Racha travel guide from Wikivoyage