Abstract:
This study aims firstly to explore historical and cultural backgrounds of Phuket;
secondly, to examine the absorption of cross culture in Phuket; thirdly, to study the consolidation
of cross culture and traditional culture of Phuket and its existence. The studied areas include the
districts of Muang, Thalang, and Kathu. The studied time range is from 1855 to 2014. The data
is collected from document, observation, and interview. The samples are from Multi-Cluster
Sampling and Snowball Sampling. The data is analyzed through historical approach and the
findings are presented in form of descriptive analysis.
The findings show that the population of Phuket is consisted of native people, Chinese,
Indian, and the Westerner. These people have moved in for trading, laboring, and introducing
their religious beliefs. The impacts of cross culture are on language, shelter construction,
dressing, culinary matter, education, and occupation. In terms of language, English, Russian,
German, Spanish, French, and foreign loan words have been used for occupational
communication. For shelter construction, natural materials have been replaced by cement and
steel. For dressing, traditional dressing code which discloses not many parts of the body has been
replaced by modern western style. Baba-Nyonya dresses are campaigned to be worn by
government officials on Thursdays, and batik clothes are campaigned to be worn by primary
students on Fridays. In terms of culinary matter, the numbers of Russian, American, and German
restaurants have been increased. For education, because of the increasing number of westerner
residents, private schools and international schools using English as medium of teaching have
been operated. Lastly, in terms of occupation, jobs and businesses related to tourism industry such
as travel agency, hotel, and tour bus have been established.
In conclusion, Phuket has had a long cross cultural history and this emergence reflects
the appearance of the province through the time range from the past to tourism period of Phuket.