Two Heroines Monument

During the seventeen hundreds Thailand (known then as Siam) and Burma (now known as Myanmar) fought a year long battle to secure Phuket which was one of many crusades known as the Nine Armies Wars. The most famous of the battles was The Battle of Thalang wherein two local women (sisters), dubbed the Two Heroines, dressed the women of Phuket as soldiers and fought the Burmese armies in a five week fight that would end in citron for Siam and ultimately play a pivotal role in ending the wars. In honor of the two sisters and their bravery the Two Heroines Monument was erected.

In 1785, the Burmese army got wind of the demise of the Thai military governor and began preparing their forces to attack the city walls of Thalang, in what they perceived to be an easy win. A British captain for the British East India Company named Francis Light was sailing past Phuket when he noticed the army gathering forces. Knowing of the recent demise of the governor, Francis went to the  governors wife Khun Jan and told her what he saw; Khun Jan and her sister Khun Mook immediately started gathering all the women on the island and outfitted them in battle gear in an attempt to pass them off as soldiers. With the help of a military strategist, Phraya Thalang Tongpoona, the Two Heroines and their “soldiers” lined the city walls at what is now known as the Thalang Victory Field and, in a five week battle, fought back the Burmese invasion securing “Thalang” for the kingdom of Siam.

The two women became local heroines and, in honor of their bravery and strength, a grateful King Rama dubbed them Khao Thep Krasattri and Khao Sri Sunthon. As Phuket developed into the metropolis it is today a statue of the Two Heroines was erected in the centre of the city known today as Thalang. The two main roads that run through the ever growing city still bear the honorary names given to the sisters, Thepkrasattri and Sisunthon Road; and, standing tall and proud in the center of these crossroads, is the magnificent statue we know today as the Two Heroines Monument.