Phan Thiết
Encyclopedia
Phan Thiết town is the capital of Binh Thuan province
Binh Thuan Province
Bình Thuận is a province of Vietnam. It is located on the country's South Central Coast, not far from Ho Chi Minh City. It is sometimes seen as part of the Southeast Region. Binh Thuan is known for its scenery and for its good beaches...

, in southeastern Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. Phan Thiet is a municipality in central, south central sector, however, the development plan to 2025, it would be municipality Southeast Vietnam. The population of Phan Thiết city in 2005 is roughly 350,000 and is expected to increase to about 400,000 in 2015. Phan Thiet is the provincial capital of Binh Thuan province where all government offices for the province are located. There are also seven districts in the province : Hàm Thuận Bắc, Hàm Thuận Nam, Đức Linh, Tánh Linh, Hàm Tân, Bắc Bình and the island district of Phú Quý.

Name

There are several theories about the origin of the name Phan Thiết most of which agree that, "Phan Thiết" is not a pure Vietnamese name
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese names generally consist of three parts: a family name, a middle name, and a given name, used in that order. The "family name first" order follows the system of Chinese names and is common throughout the Sinosphere , but is different from Chinese, Korean, and Japanese names in having a...

:
  • Before the Vietnamese conquest of the area in the 17th century, the Cham people called this land "Hamu Lithit" - "Hamu": hamlet in the field , "Lithit" :near the sea. With the arrival of the Vietnamese settlers, a new name in Vietnamese was gradually developed. Since the Vietnamese had already changed the Cham city of Panduraga into Phan Rang and another settlement into Phan Rí, they attached the prefix "Phan" into the shortening of "Lithit" to make the name Phan Thiet.

  • Vietnamese people have been transliterating the Cham names into more Vietnamese sounding names Panduranga or Mang-lang into Phan Rang, Mang-lý into Phan Rí, Hamu Lithit or Mang-thit into Phan Thiết. Those three places are referred to as "Tam Phan" (Triple Phan).

  • The name of the Cham Prince who was the military governor of the area in the 15th century was Po Thit (brother of the princess Po Inu Sah and son of King Par Ra Cham Chanh or Trà Chanh). The fortification was thus called Camp Po Thit. The Vietnamese people mispronounced the camp name as Phan Thiết.

History

  • This area used to belong to the ancient kingdom of Champa
    Champa
    The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...

     and was later absorbed into the Đại Việt Empire (former name of Vietnam
    Vietnam
    Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

    ). Vietnamese rule was established over the area which has become Binh Thuan province today, but back then the administrative level and the boundaries of the area had not been determined.
  • 1697, Binh Thuan in turn was changed from a fort ("trấn") to the district (phủ), then to the dinh. Later Phan Thiết was officially recognized as a đạo (along with Phan Rang, Phố Hài and Ma Ly of the Tam Tân area).
  • From 1773 to 1801, there were fierce fighting between the forces of the Nguyễn Dynasty and Tây Sơn Dynasty
    Tây Son Dynasty
    The name of Tây Sơn is used in many ways to refer to the period of peasant rebellions and decentralized dynasties established between the eras of the Later Lê and Nguyễn dynasties in the history of Vietnam between 1770 and 1802...

     in the area.
  • In 1825, during the reign of Emperor Minh Mạng
    Minh Mang
    Minh Mạng was the second emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until 20 January 1841. He was a younger son of Emperor Gia Long, whose eldest son, Crown Prince Canh, had died in 1801...

    , Binh Thuan officially became a province. A part of Phan Thiết was made into the district of Hàm Thuận (1854, Tự Đức time, the district was named Tuy Lý).
  • 1836 (17th year of Minh Mạng
    Minh Mang
    Minh Mạng was the second emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until 20 January 1841. He was a younger son of Emperor Gia Long, whose eldest son, Crown Prince Canh, had died in 1801...

    ), a cabinet officer named Dao Tri Phu was sent to Binh Thuan to oversee the surveying tasks and establish land boundaries for 307 communes and villages, in fifteen districts of Binh Thuan in order to determine taxation. On the right bank of the river (Cà Ty river today): Duc Thang, Nhuan Duc and Lac Dao village; left bank side: Long Binh, Minh Long.
  • Even near the end of the 19th century, Phan Thiết was not yet officially recognized as an administrative unit (lower level) under Binh Thuan province.
  • In 1898 (10th year of the reign of Emperor Thành Thái
    Thanh Thai
    Emperor Thành Thái of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty was born Prince Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lân, son of Emperor Duc Duc. He reigned for 18 years, from 1889 to 1907.-Biography:...

    ), Binh Thuan provincial capital was moved to Phu Tai village, a Phan Thiết suburb. On October 20 of that year, Thành Thái
    Thanh Thai
    Emperor Thành Thái of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty was born Prince Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lân, son of Emperor Duc Duc. He reigned for 18 years, from 1889 to 1907.-Biography:...

     signed a degree to make Phan Thiết a City and Binh Thuan provincial capital (on the same day as the establishment of the Cities of Huế
    Hue
    Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...

    , Hội An
    Hoi An
    Hội An , or rarely Faifo, is a city of Vietnam, on the coast of the South China Sea in the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is located in Quang Nam province and is home to approximately 120,000 inhabitants...

    , Quy Nhon, Thanh Hóa
    Thanh Hóa
    Thanh Hóa is the capital city of Vietnam's Thanh Hoa province. The population is nearly 200,000 with an area of only 57.9 square kilometers....

     and Vinh
    Vinh
    Vinh is a city in Vietnam. It is located in the northern half of the country, and is the capital of Nghệ An Province. Politically, Vinh is a municipality within Nghệ An Province. On September 5th, 2008, it was upgraded from Grade-II city to Grade-I city, the fourth Grade-I city of Vietnam after...

    ).

Administrative divisions

Phan Thiết is subdivided into 18 wards and communes, of which 14 are urban wards, namely: Đức Thắng, Đức Nghĩa, Đức Long, Phú Hài, Phú Thủy, Phú Trinh, Phú Tài, Thanh Hải, Hàm Tiến, Mũi Né, Xuân An, Bình Hưng, Hưng Long, Lạc Đạo and 4 suburban communes, namely: Tiến Lợi, Tiến Thành, Thiện Nghiệp and Phong Nẫm.

Located on an arm of the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...

, Phan Thiết is one of Vietnam's most important fishing areas. Its population is roughly 205,333 (as of 2004). Hồ Chí Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...

 lived in Phan Thiết for a short time and taught at the Dục Thanh school.

During the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, Phan Thiết was the site of the U.S. military base
Military base
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a...

 known as Landing Zone Betty, which was located at the now closed airfield southwest of the city. In recent years, Phan Thiết (specifically Mũi Né
Mui Ne
Mui Ne is a coastal resort town in the Binh Thuan Province of southeastern Vietnam. The town is close to the city of Phan Thiết. Tourism has transformed Mui Ne into a resort destination since 1995, when many visited to view the total solar eclipse of October 24, 1995. Mui Ne has many resorts on...

 Beach district) has been transformed into a resort
Resort
A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company....

 destination. October 24, 1995 is considered to be the birth of tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 in Phan Thiết, when thousands rushed to Mũi Né to see the total solar eclipse
Solar eclipse
As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...

. The event was commemorated on the same day in 2005 as the tenth anniversary of tourism for the province.

Local people in Phan Thiết regularly practice a ceremony to a whale god, which is believed to give good luck in nautical pursuits.

External links

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