Mardelong

Mardelong, known as Phatthalung, lies west of the great Songkhla lagoon. Settlements around the lake shared waterways and religious traditions, and Phatthalung became an important administrative and Theravada Buddhist centre from the late fourteenth to the seventeenth century. It was linked to Nakhon Si Thammarat and the expanding authority of Ayutthaya. Shrines and monasteries around the lagoon recall a history reaching back to earlier Hindu and Buddhist communities.