Mueng Rat

Mueang Rat lies in the upper Pa Sak valley around Lom Sak, a long basin between forested mountains south-east of Sukhothai. Local tradition places here the city of Pho Khun Pha Mueang, ruler of Mueang Rat, who with Bang Klang Hao drove the Khmer governor out of Sukhothai in the thirteenth century. Pha Mueang then gave Bang Klang Hao the title Si Intharathit, and Sukhothai became the first Thai kingdom.

In 1767 the general Phraya Chakri, the future Rama I, came back from a campaign against Vientiane through the district, and some of the Lao he brought from there settled in the hills. The settlers moved down to the plain beside the Pa Sak River and called their new town Lom Sak. Lao families whom King Taksin had settled at Lopburi later returned to join them, and Lom Sak grew as a Lao town on the road between the Chao Phraya plain and the Mekong.